The Sins of Our Fathers
by LiquidSky
Summary: Lee and Kazuya have suffered for Heihachi’s sins, but what of theirs? What impact will ‘their’ actions have on the lives of their children? Will they have to pay for the sins of their fathers? It all begins before the second tournament...
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Tekken and its characters belong to Namco, all the characters and situations that were not in the game belong to me.

Prologue

Black-Winged Angel

"_...Whispered voices at my ear,_

_Death before my eyes_

_Lying next to me I fear..."_

--Evanescence (_Whisper_)

The storm was quickly approaching, it invited a harsh wind to tear at the remaining leaves on the trees; they grabbed on to the branches attempting to hold on to life if only for a moment longer. Sooner or later however, they would be overcome...They would then float gracefully to the ground, their final resting place.

A bolt of lightning shattered the black sky illuminating the Japanese countryside. Beyond the bare trees a gorge could be seen briefly, the many jagged rocks at the bottom menacingly reaching toward the sky, unfazed by the roll of thunder that followed. Another bolt of lightning and a small figure at the bottom of the gorge could be seen; a child whose cry had been masked by the thunder. A five-year-old male barely hanging on to life.

At his tender age he was experiencing what no child should. He was frightened and in pain...He had tried to move or scream...to do something, but all he could do was stare at the sky, he was not even aware of the tears that streamed down his face. The pain began to fade, though he was but a child it was then when he realized that he was dying. He no longer felt fear, what he felt was anger, hatred. If only he could climb back up the gorge and make his father pay for what he had done.

That was when he saw him.

A figure with black, leathery wings hovered above him.

_Kazuya Mishima._ He heard a voice inside his head.

_How does it know my name? _The boy wondered.

_I know everything about you, Kazuya._ His voice was deep and menacing.

_You can hear what I think? _

_Of course._

_Are you an angel? _Kazuya asked innocently.

_Angel?_ The creature laughed. _That is the last thing I am._

_You're a devil, aren't you?_

He smiled wickedly. _Are you frightened?_

The boy hesitated..._Are you here to kill me?_

The creature laughed once more. _Kill you? You will die at any moment why would I need to kill you?_

_Why are you here?_

_I am here to help you...To help us._

Kazuya did not seem to notice the last part of his statement. _How are you going to help me? _He wondered why being a devil he would want to do a good deed.

_I can heal your wounds and give you back your life in addition to great power. You would like that, would you not?_

_I don't want to die._

_Accept my proposal and I promise you will not. I too am dying, to live I require a body, your body. I need to live inside of you._

What the creature had said seemed illogical. _But you're so big, how can you live inside me?_

_Not in physical form. I will occupy your mind, your being._

_Will it hurt?_

_A little._

Kazuya hesitated, was he telling the truth?

The creature sensed this. _If you accept you will be able to make your father pay...To make him feel the same pain that you have felt._

Heihachi did deserve to pay..._All right._

At his words the creature disappeared and in his place left a purple light. It began to surround Kazuya's body, as it did so it began to heal his wounds; he began to feel again, he was soon aware of the raindrops falling on his face. He sat up, as he looked down at his body he noticed a large scar on his chest. Before he was able to question it the purple light seemed to dive into his body making him scream in pain; a few moments later it was gone.

Kazuya stood and smiled. Heihachi was going to be surprised.


	2. Death of Common Sense

The Sins of Our Fathers

Chapter 1

(Death of Common Sense)

"_...Lead us not into temptation,_

_But deliver us from evil..."_

"Not now, Lee." The young woman gently moved her right shoulder away from the silver-haired man's touch.

"That's not what you said last night." He smiled seductively then gently wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Last night we were at home, not in Mr. Mishima's office." As Lee held her tighter she made a half-hearted attempt to move away.

"So?" With his left hand he caressed her face. "He's not here now, is he?" He said as he tucked a strand of dark hair behind her right ear.

"I need to file these papers, and you know how he gets when—" Lee silenced her with a kiss.

She was well aware of the consequences that her less than intelligent actions could bring, but when it came to Lee she found it difficult resist. She draped arms around his neck leaving her filing forgotten on the desk.

"Lee, I would truly appreciate it if you kept your hands off the help." They immediately pulled away when they heard a voice coming from the doorway.

"Kazuya," Lee began somewhat shakily. "I thought you weren't due in until this afternoon."

Kazuya ignored his comment and turned to his secretary, she hastily stepped away from Lee. "Is this what I pay you to do Sakura?" He slowly advanced toward the woman.

"N-no Mr. Mishima." She lowered her gaze as her face turned a deep shade of crimson. "I apologize, sir."

"An apology will do you no good next time."

She knew that his words were not to be taken lightly. "There won't be a next time, sir." She bowed slightly then quickly exited the office.

Lee glared at his adopted brother. "Her name is _Sayuri_."

"I doubt their names mean anything to you." Kazuya scoffed as he made his way to the ebony desk.

"This one does." Lee countered.

Kazuya smirked as he sat on his leather chair. "What about that American lawyer that you were out with the night before last, and your dear Anna?"

"That's none of your damn business." Lee instinctively clenched his fists.

"You're right." Kazuya opened the top right-hand drawer of his desk and extracted a file. "I really don't give a damn, as long as you don't do it on my time, or on my desk." He made a face of disgust. "Now," He opened the file and began to leaf thorough the papers. "I have that meeting this afternoon, I'll expect my notes, charts and other visuals to be organized and ready in an hour."

"An hour?" Lee asked outraged. "It'll take me about that long to get the first half done."

Without warning Kazuya threw a stapler across the room, it shattered as it hit the wall. Had Lee not moved it would have collided with his head, which had obviously been the target. "I think I've been tolerant enough for today." Kazuya's voice was low, always a deadly sign. "Perhaps if you hadn't been playing around you would already have it done."

"I know...I—"

Kazuya looked at his watch. "Fifty-nine minutes."

Lee turned on his heel and left the office knowing very well that it was best not to argue.

"He is so late..." Sayuri Yoshida said softly as she looked at the clock. It had been a very difficult day. She hated working at the Mishima Zaibatsu, Kazuya was always extremely irritable, even abusive toward some employees, and there was always too much work that needed to be done. Were it not for Lee she would have left without giving it a second thought. But she didn't want to leave as long as Lee was there, things were difficult enough for him as it was, if she left...

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening behind her; she turned to see Lee closing it. He tossed his keys onto the coffee table then collapsed on the couch.

"How could he keep you this late," The young Japanese woman said as she made her way toward the couch. "It's already past nine." She knelt beside him and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

"The meeting ran late." He said wearily.

"I could have stayed to help you."

"And ruin his fun?" He closed his eyes.

Sayuri sighed. "I'm just disgusted by the way he treats you, you're his brother."

"_Adopted_ brother, never to be mistaken with _brother_." Lee scoffed. "Not that it would make any damn difference."

They were both silent for a short moment. She reached for the pack of cigarettes resting on the coffee table."...Can you tell me what the top secret meeting was about?" Sayuri asked, she had been extremely curious, for more than a week the Zaibatsu employees had been speaking and speculating about a secret meeting. Something that not even Sayuri, Kazuya's assistant secretary knew about.

Lee opened his eyes and sat up, Sayuri extracted a cigarette from the pack and handed it to him along with a lighter. "Well..." He began as he lit it, "...It's out in the open now." He took a long draw from his cigarette, slowly exhaled then ran his fingers through his platinum hair. "...Kazuya has decided that there will be a second King of Iron Fist tournament."

"Oh?" It struck her as odd. As far as she knew the first tournament had been held to decide who would gain control of the Mishima Zaibatsu. After defeating and killing his father, Heihachi Mishima, Kazuya had been declared the winner of the tournament and now ran the company. It didn't make any sense that he would want a second tournament.

"Strange isn't it?" Lee said. "He met with the would-be sponsors today; most of them decided to back him."

"...Why another tournament?" Sayuri took a seat beside him.

"That's what I wondered, but today, after the meeting he told me why." Lee turned to look at his girlfriend. "...Heihachi is alive."

"But how?" She wondered.

Lee shrugged. "The old man must have tough skin or something..." He was pensive as he continued to smoke.

"...You're going to enter the tournament aren't you?" Sayuri asked, though she already knew the answer.

"I already did." He said as he put the cigarette on the ashtray.

"When is it?"

"Two months. I'm going to start training tomorrow, I'll have to be up by four so I can at least get a good two or three hours in before I have to go to work." He stood up. "I'm going to bed." He said as he made his way up the stairs.

As she watched him Sayuri could not help but worry. "A second tournament..." A nasty feeling began to creep inside her.

"I'm sorry Miss Kazama, but Mr. Mishima does not wish to meet with you." Sayuri tapped her pen on the desk impatiently. "There is nothing I can do. I'm terribly sorry." She finished hanging up. "I swear that woman is going to drive me crazy." She said turning her chair toward Lee's desk.

"Who is she?" Lee asked as he leafed through the pile of papers in front of him.

"She's from some wildlife agency...thing. She calls at least once a day asking for a meeting with Mr. Mishima." She stood up and grabbed a stack of papers from her desk.

"Oh."

"Speaking of which I have to have him sign these." She was about to step away from her desk when the phone rang. "Damn phone." She grumbled as she picked up the receiver. "Mr. Mishima's office, Sayuri speaking." She paused for a moment. "Hold please." She pushed a button and Lee's phone rang.

"I don't have time for this." He continued to study his papers.

"You better answer it." Sayuri instructed. "He said it was important."

"Damn it." She watched Lee pick up the phone then made her way to Kazuya's office, she knocked once when she reached the door and entered. "Excuse me sir," She walked to the desk and stood near his chair, then proceeded to set the papers to his right. "These need to be reviewed and signed by tomorrow at the latest."

He moved his attention from the large stack of papers in front of him and looked at her. "What are they?"

"The rules and conditions of the sponsors for the tournament." She explained.

Kazuya looked from her face to the papers on his desk, noticing on his way that she was wearing a very low-cut blouse. "Fine." In exchange he gave her a small stack of documents. "I need these copied and sent out to each of the names on this list. I want it done by this afternoon." He handed her the list and she took it along with the rest of the papers.

"Yes, sir. Is there anything else?"

"Not at the moment." Without saying another word she made her way toward the door as Kazuya watched her walk away. He had to admit that she was a very attractive woman...he shook his head at the thought, disgusted with himself.

Sayuri closed the door behind her and made her way back to her desk.

"I have to go." Lee informed her on his way to the door. "I'll be back in about an hour."

"Where are you going?"

"I'll tell you when I come back."

"Wait, Kazuya is..." She spoke too late, he had disappeared through the door. "...Going to be mad..."

Sayuri paced back and forth in front of the television set. It was nearing nine o'clock in the evening and she was still waiting to hear from Lee, he had said that he would be back in one hour, but that had been before lunch. Upon hearing that Lee had left without letting him know, Kazuya had been extremely angry and had promise to torture him in every way imaginable. Sayuri truly dreaded going back to work in the morning.

As her pacing grew quicker she began to obsess about receiving a phone call from the police telling her that Lee had been in an accident.

Was she being paranoid_? He always does drive too fast and a little recklessly_. She thought biting her nails.

For reasons unknown, she had always had a fear that her loved ones, or perhaps even she, would die in a car accident; that was the reason why she usually drove very carefully; a little too carefully, she was often told.

She looked at her watch, then at the clock on the wall and back at her watch. She was suddenly startled by the sound of the door opening; she quickly spun around to see Lee stepping inside. "Where have you been!" Sayuri demanded.

Lee tossed his keys on the coffee table then advanced toward her. "You weren't worried, were you?" He asked as her wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Of course I was!" Sayuri tried to squirm away, but he held her tightly. She gave up and smiled, at least he was in a good mood. "Where were you?" She asked again.

"I had to take care of some important business that took longer than I expected." He explained.

"Kazuya was _not_ happy."

"I'm going to be gone for a while." He said ignoring her comment.

"How long? Where?"

"Two weeks. China, Hong Kong to be exact." He answered then waited for her response.

"Why would you need to go to China?" She asked a worried expression crossing her pretty face.

Lee sighed, let go of her waist then walked toward the couch turning his back to her. "...This tournament..." He paused and ran his fingers through his hair, Sayuri patiently waited for him to continue. "...It just seems _wrong_." He turned to face her.

"How do you mean?" She slowly walked toward him.

"I want to think that I'll win and that I'll gain control of the Zaibatsu and restore the honor that it has lost through Heihachi and Kazuya's management, but...I want to be prepared." Sayuri took his hand. "I am working very hard, and I know that I have become a much better fighter than I was at the last tournament, but still, I have to be open-minded and see that things may not turn out as I expect." He finished wearily.

Sayuri was glad to hear him say that, she knew how much winning meant to Lee and had been worried about how he would react if he lost. Knowing that he saw that as a possibility lifted a tremendous weight off her shoulders. "...What does this have to do with China?" She asked after a short pause.

He smiled at her. "I'm starting my own business."

"And you hadn't told me about it?" She knew she must have sounded angry, but in reality she was hurt. Did he not consider her important enough to know?

"I was planning to tell you when I was sure that everything had worked out." Lee explained.

Sayuri understood, she knew that he despised being seen as a failure, so it made sense that he had kept it hidden until he was sure about the outcome. "I'm assuming it _did_ work out." He answered her with a smile. "I'm glad." She said wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Anyway, all I have to do is go to China for two weeks to personally oversee some things, sign some papers, you know how those things are." He sounded as happy as he had at the beginning of their conversation.

"What about Kazuya? Does he know?"

"No. You cannot tell him anything."

"What am I supposed to say tomorrow morning?" She suddenly felt a little frightened.

"Just go in as you always do." Lee suggested. "When he asks where I am tell him that I never came home and that you don't know. He can't prove otherwise."

"He'll suspect that there's something wrong."

"I'll call him and tell him that I'm taking two weeks off to train for the tournament."

"What about when you come back?" She asked concerned. "He'll _at least _have you killed."

"It won't matter." He said nonchalantly. "I'll be back just in time for the tournament and I'll either win, or...well...either way it won't matter."

Sayuri shook her head. "He scares me."

"It will all be over soon." Lee said as he wrapped his arms around her. "...One way or another."

They stayed in that position for a few moments. "...When are you leaving?" Sayuri finally asked.

"Very early tomorrow."

"What are you going to do _now_?" She hoped he would get the hint.

"Pack."

Sayuri smiled seductively and began to slowly trace his jaw line with her index finger. "Is that all?"

"Pack really fast?" He asked, a wolfish grin developing on his lips. "Better yet, pack later."

Sayuri smiled once more then slowly headed upstairs.

Six days had passed since Lee had left for Hong Kong. Though Sayuri was more than happy to receive his phone calls telling her that everything was going well, it always scared her to think about what would happen upon his return. Kazuya was more irritable than usual, and to top things off Jun Kazama called more and more frequently each day. Her calls had finally gone to the point where Sayuri could take no more. After receiving one of them she resolutely stood up and made her way to Kazuya's office.

She knocked once then entered the office; the look on his face told her that she had not picked the best time to bring that up. "...Sir?" She timidly approached him.

"Sato backed out." Kazuya said walking toward his desk. "He doesn't think sponsoring the tournament will be good for his business."

"You lost a sponsor?" Sayuri asked for lack of a better comment.

Kazuya responded by giving her a look that said 'are you deaf or are you stupid?'. "Lee was supposed to convince him, but he's somewhere training for a cause that is futile. What the hell was he thinking when he left?" He extracted a file from the middle of a large stack of papers on his desk. "I hope he realizes that there will be consequences when he returns."

Feeling bold for about one second Sayuri smiled and said, "I suppose it has become evident that you're nothing without Lee."

The look on Kazuya's face told her that it had been one second too long. He slowly advanced toward her, his eyes narrowed; he stopped in front of her, his face mere inches away from hers. "Would you care to repeat that?" He asked in a low voice.

Sayuri mentally kicked herself and vowed never to venture into something like that again. Not knowing what to say she looked down at the floor.

"If you ever," He pointed his index finger at her. "Overstep your boundaries again I will personally throw you out that window." He pointed behind his desk. "Is that clear?"

"...Y-yes, sir." She stammered.

"Good." Kazuya handed her the file. "This is Sato's file, I don't need it in here."

"Yes, sir." She bowed slightly then began to head for the door, but stopped when she was halfway there. "...Sir?" She said timidly, realizing why she had gone to his office in the first place.

"More smart remarks?" Kazuya crossed his arms.

"...No...That Jun Kazama has not stopped calling here since the day when I first told you about her."

"Who?"

"Jun Kazama, from the wildlife agency."

"Oh."

"She calls multiple times per day, it's gotten to the point where it's difficult to get my work done, taking into consideration all the other calls I receive."

"Damn it. How does my schedule look tomorrow?"

"You have a meeting scheduled for three thirty."

"Just schedule a ten minute meeting before that, by the time it's over she'll be so scared that she'll never call here again." He walked back to his desk.

Sayuri didn't doubt his words. "I'll schedule her for two fifty." She turned to leave the office.

Kazuya watched as she left, unable to look away. How dare she act so disrespectful? That was something that he was not willing to tolerate again..._She does look good today_. His own thoughts surprised him...Why was he even looking at her? _Maybe her extremely short skirt had something to do with it, or maybe it's_...He forced those thoughts out of his head.

He knew the only reason why he didn't fire her after that remark was that he needed her at the moment. Everything was behind as it was, it would take weeks to train someone else and Lee was not there to train anyone. That was they _only_ reason why she was still working.

_Do not attempt to deceive yourself_... He heard the voice within him say. _You know the true reason why she is still here...You want her._

"I do not." Devil...It was a voice that Kazuya had grown to despise, it was always surfacing at the worst moments.

_She is very beautiful, and you are but a man. It cannot be helped. You have desired her since the first time you saw her._

"I have no time for such nonsense." Kazuya sifted through his papers trying to occupy himself with something.

_Have you not noticed the sensuous manner in which she walks? Or her revealing garments?_

"Leave me alone, Demon!" Kazuya slammed a fist on his desk.

The creature laughed, then said; _If you want her, take her. It is all very simple, I am certain that she will not object._

"Leave me alone."

_As you wish...Remember, she will not object._

"The last thing I want is a secretary." Kazuya glanced at the door then continued to sift through his work.

"Seven days..." Sayuri said softly covering her face with her hands. "Seven more days..." It was almost two o'clock, three more hours and she would be able to go home.

That day had been the worst day by far, even worse than the day before when she'd had the little outburst of boldness with her boss. Sayuri knew that if Lee had been there everything would have been running smoothly; she was an excellent secretary, but even she could only do so much.

She sighed in frustration as she heard the phone ring for what she swore was the hundredth time. "Mr. Mishima's office, Sayuri speaking."

"_This is Mr. Yamaguchi, put Kazuya on the phone." _A deep male voice said.

"I'm sorry, sir, but Mr. Mishima is unavailable at the moment."

"_I didn't ask you if he was available, I told you to put him on the phone."_

She was in no mood for irate clients. "He is on the phone and has asked not to be disturbed." She explained in the calmest voice she could muster.

"_Listen girl, you don't know who you're talking to. If you want to keep your job I suggest you transfer me right now." _Yamaguchi said menacingly.

"Hold please, I'll see what I can do." Sayuri complied not having the time for a fruitless argument. She pressed the hold button then proceeded to call Kazuya's office. "I'm very sorry, Mr. Mishima."

"_What is it? I told you I couldn't be disturbed." _Kazuya sounded quite unhappy.

"I have a Mr. Yamaguchi on the line who insists on speaking with you."

"_Transfer him, now." _Kazuya said hanging up.

Sayuri did as she was told. She couldn't help wondering who Yamaguchi was, it was all very mysterious; why hadn't she heard his name before? It could very well be something personal, not at all related with the Zaibatsu...not her business. Yet, she felt curiosity creeping into her.

She picked up the receiver; her finger hovering over the button that would enable her to hear Kazuya's conversation, something she had once discovered by accident.

She pressed the button. "_...Of course Kenji." _Sayuri heard Kazuya's voice.

"_I'm worried about that brother of yours, Kazuya." _Yamaguchi's comment only served to further spike Sayuri's curiosity.

"_Lee has no say in this."_

"_You're not afraid of what he'll do when he discovers what you're doing?"_

"_There won't be much for him to do. I'll just tell him, 'I'm forming a partnership with one of the biggest companies in Japan and you're fired.' It's very simple." _It took Sayuri a few moments to comprehend what she had heard.

"_Well, I suppose that's your problem, just make sure you don't make it mine." _Yamaguchi warned.

"_I'll meet with you again after the tournament."_

"_Fine. Call me with a time._" Yamaguchi finished hanging up.

Sayuri slammed down the receiver and shakily stood up. She could not remember a time when she had felt angrier. After everything Lee had done for his brother, after everything Kazuya put him through...that was too much. Not thinking about what she was doing she stalked to Kazuya's office and entered without knocking. Once inside she saw him standing in front of a file cabinet by his desk.

Kazuya was startled to see her in his office, had he not heard her knock? "Cancel that appointment with Jun Kazama." He said turning to face Sayuri.

She walked up to him, then did the last thing that he expected her to do...she slapped him. "You son of a bitch." Sayuri said, her voice barely above a whisper. "How dare you? This company is nothing without Lee. Nothing."

Kazuya didn't speak. How dare _he_? She was the one overstepping her boundaries.

_Make her pay_. The demon spoke. _Make her pay!_

Without warning he backhanded Sayuri across the face causing her to fall to the floor. He looked down and saw the young woman cradling the right side of her face with her hand, looking up at him, frightened. He bent down on his right knee and took hold of her upper arm, well aware that he was hurting her. "You listened in on my conversation?" He asked looking directly into her eyes. She was unable to respond, too scared to say anything.

Kazuya let go of her arm, feeling guilty for physically abusing someone who obviously could not defend herself against him.

_She had no right to do what she did_. He felt Devil stirring inside him. _Make her pay!_

He couldn't bring himself to do it. She looked so frightened and vulnerable, so...beautiful. He gently stroked her face on the side that he had struck, something that surprised even him.

He was very close to her; he could smell her perfume, her shampoo. He ran his fingers through her long, dark hair...it was so soft. Devil had been right; he _did_ want her. Slowly he moved in to kiss her and to his surprise she did not try to turn away.

_I told you she would not object._

Sayuri didn't know what to do...or did she? She needed to get up and get out of that office and leave the Mishima building...If she knew what she had to do, then why wasn't she doing it? It was a simple action; all she had to do was make her body work along with her brain. _Get up, Sayuri! _Her mind screamed, but her body didn't respond. All she could do was sit there and stare at Kazuya, noticing how very different he was from Lee.

She watched as Kazuya leaned closer and closer to her. He hesitated just as their lips were about to touch...It was as if he were giving her a chance to get away. But soon hesitation on both parts was forgotten. Kazuya kissed her passionately she was surprised to find herself responding, though she knew she really should not have been. She had always felt it, there was something about a man with so much power that had always intrigued her.

When they broke the kiss common sense made a brief cameo in Sayuri's mind. _I should not have done that._ _Why did I let him kiss me? Why did I returned the kiss? _Sayuri asked herself those questions while Kazuya undid the buttons of her blouse. _Why? _She wondered again as he left a trail of kisses down her neck. Why did she let him if she knew that was something that she would later regret?

That day Sayuri Yoshida learned the answers to all her questions...There are times when carnal desire overpowers common sense...a simple, yet painfully truthful answer.


	3. The Demon and the Angel

Chapter 2

(The Demon and the Angel)

"_Long lost words whisper slowly to me_

_Still can't find what keeps me here..."_

-Evanescence (Haunted)

Sayuri stood in the middle of Kazuya's office straightening her short, black skirt. Without glancing at her Kazuya made his way toward his private washroom.

Sayuri stopped him just before he reached the door. "Wait!"

"What?" He said without turning.

She hesitated a moment. "...Please don't tell Lee." She begged.

Kazuya slowly turned to face her. "...Hmm." He stared at her for a moment, his face expressionless. "...It seems that we both have something to hide." He simply stated.

"You wouldn't." Sayuri said taking a small step back.

"I won't tell him what happened today if you don't tell him what you discovered."

"I can't hide that from him!" Sayuri protested. "What sort of person would that make me?"

"And what sort of person does _this_ make you!" Kazuya asked taking hold of her upper arm. Sayuri could do nothing but look down. "You know..." He let go of her arm. "...Regretfully, I can't hide _this_ from him either. He _is_ my brother after all." A wicked smile formed on his lips.

Sayuri's voice was barely above a whisper. "This is blackmail."

Kazuya looked into her eyes. "Yes, it is."

"You disgust me." She spat.

He pushed her against the wall, then stood in front of her, his hands on the wall on either side of her head. "Do not for _one_ minute think that this little incident gives you any special privileges. You are still nothing but a secretary and _I_ am still your boss." He stepped away from her again. "I never thought you could be such a slut, but why am I even surprised?" Kazuya smirked.

Sayuri looked as if she were about to cry. "...It was just a mistake."

"Of course it was a mistake..." He gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "...Or maybe your feelings for him are not as strong as they used to be."

She hesitated and then said. "...Of course they are."

"Whatever."

Sayuri shook her head. "...I can't lose him." She admitted. "...I don't have a choice. I won't tell him if you _swear_ that you won't."

"I won't tell him."

"How can I be sure?" Sayuri asked.

"How can _I_ be sure that _you_ won't tell him?" Kazuya countered.

"I guess you'll just have to trust me."

"Just like you'll have to trust _me_." Sayuri nodded. "Now," Kazuya said turning back to the washroom. "I'm sure there's much work out there that needs to be done." With that he stepped inside and closed the door.

During her twenty-four years of life Sayuri had done nothing that she regretted; she was the type of person who believed that every experience, every action made a person who she or he was. She had once promised herself that she would never regret her actions, whatever those might be; but promises are meant to be broken. For the first time in her life she experienced regret.

She opened the upper right-hand drawer in her desk and extracted her purse; she needed to fix her make-up and hair. As she made her way to the bathroom down the hall she thought about how lucky she had been. The Mishima building was very large; it contained many employees in various offices. Anyone could have walked in on her and Kazuya if they had tried to call or knock and no one had answered. Yes...she had been lucky.

A few minutes later she stepped out of the bathroom looking as fresh and beautiful as she had in the morning. She stepped into her office, put away her purse and sat on her chair, she then began to look through the stack of papers on her desk. About two minutes later she heard someone knocking on her door.

"Come in."

The door opened and inside stepped a young Japanese woman who looked to be about Sayuri's age, perhaps a bit younger. She had black shoulder-length hair kept back with a headband; bangs also covered her forehead. She was extremely pretty, but a little on the thin side, Sayuri thought.

"Hi." The girl said. "I have an appointment with Mr. Mishima, I'm Jun Kazama."

"Oh." Sayuri had completely forgotten to cancel the appointment. "One moment Miss Kazama." She knew Kazuya wouldn't be happy about that, but as far as she was concerned it was _he _who was to blame. She picked up the receiver and pressed the button that would connect her to Kazuya's phone. "Miss Kazama is here, sir." She paused for a moment then turned and smiled at Jun. "I know, sir." She turned her face away. "But if you remember, I didn't do it because I was _busy_." She paused again. "Yes, sir." She hung up and turned to Jun. "This way Miss Kazama." She stood up and guided her to the door then opened it and motioned her inside.

"Thank you." Jun smiled.

"You're welcome, Miss Kazama." Sayuri smiled back then closed the door and returned to her desk.

"Why?" Sayuri said softly. "Why in the _hell_ did I do it?"

She was suddenly startled by the ringing of her phone. "Mr. Mishima's office, Sayuri speaking." She answered hastily.

"_Hi."_ She instantly recognized Lee's voice.

"Lee!"

"_Is something wrong?"_

"N-no, no." She took a deep breath. "I'm...just happy to hear you."

"_I'm just calling to see how everything is going."_

"Fine," She lied. "Just extra work, but fine other than that. How is everything in Hong Kong?"

"_There's much that needs to be done, but I should finish it all soon. It's difficult because I devote so much of my time to training for the tournament, but I'm sure it'll all pay off in the end."_ Lee said enthusiastically.

"I'm glad to hear that." Sayuri said softly.

"_Are you sure everything is fine?"_

"Yeah, just...you know Kazuya being himself, he's very upset with you."

"_I knew he would be, but don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine. I have to go now."_

"All right."

"_See you in a week."_

"Bye." She heard him hang up and she did the same. She wanted to cry, she felt like the lowest form of life._ I don't deserve him,_ she thought sadly.

"Cancel everything for this afternoon."

"What?" Kazuya's voice took her by surprise. She noticed that a smiling Jun Kazama was standing by the door ready to step outside. Sayuri looked at the clock on the wall, two fifty-five, the meeting had only lasted five minutes.

"Cancel whatever I had planned for this afternoon." Kazuya said again.

"But this is the second time you've canceled an appointment with Mrs. Bennett, she won't be happy. I even scheduled for someone to be the translator and he had to cancel one of his own appointments to do it." Sayuri protested.

"Kazuya, if it's too much trouble we can always reschedule." Jun offered.

_Kazuya? He has known this woman for five minutes and he lets her call him by his first name?_ Sayuri thought.

"No." Kazuya stared daggers into Sayuri. "It's _no_ trouble at all."

"Whatever you say, sir." Sayuri picked up the phone and dialed Mrs. Bennett's number. Seeing this Kazuya turned on his heel and walked toward the door.

Happiness...If one were to ask each person in the world the meaning of that word one would receive a different answer each time. Love, money, respect, power...the list could continue forever. Sometimes what one believes will be true happiness turns out to be the exact opposite; one may find that money is not everything or that love alone cannot happiness bring.

Happiness was a word that Kazuya Mishima had not thought about often, he believed that it had come along with his victory at first tournament. Money, power, respect...it had all seemed so perfect. Yet as he found himself in that little café, with that fascinating woman he realized how unhappy he had been.

"What's wrong, Kazuya?" He looked up from his coffee cup to look at Jun, realizing that she must have noticed the change in his demeanor.

"...Nothing." He once again focused on his coffee.

"Why are you so quiet all of the sudden?" Jun looked at his face apparently searching for his eyes. He didn't respond. She smiled, that beautiful smile that Kazuya had grown to love in the past two weeks. "I know it's not _nothing_." She stated, the smile still adorning her features.

"How would you know?"

She shrugged. "I know."

He looked at her for a moment, attempting to read her expression, a task that he found extremely difficult. "...I have to leave." He said.

Jun looked disappointed. "Why so soon?"

"Do you think that the Zaibatsu runs itself?" He asked as he stood up. "I shouldn't even have come."

"You didn't have to." She stood up as well.

Without saying a word he walked toward the counter and offered the woman behind it a credit card. She ran it through the slot on the cash register and handed it back to him.

"Thank you Mr. Mishima."

"I could have paid you know." Jun said as they exited the café.

"Now you're going to complain about it?"

Jun stopped to look at him. "I never did." She said firmly. "What's wrong, Kazuya?" She asked concerned. "We were having a nice conversation just minutes ago, and all of the sudden you seem...upset."

"I'm fine." He knew the tone of his voice told her that the final word had been said.

They walked down the sidewalk in silence, after a few minutes they reached a bus stop. "...I'll see you later." Jun said.

Kazuya shrugged. "Perhaps."

As he continued alone down the sidewalk he wondered why his attitude toward Jun had changed so abruptly.

_You are afraid._ Devil said.

"That is the last thing I am." He said as he entered the Zaibatsu.

_You are afraid to trust her, to **love** her_.

"I do not love her." He entered the elevator and on the panel touched the number for the top floor.

_If you do not love her...why are you afraid? _Devil questioned.

"I am not afraid." He said as the elevator began to rise.

_You are afraid_. Devil insisted. _You are as afraid as that little boy was over twenty years ago_.

Kazuya felt his blood begin to boil. "Leave me be, Demon!"

_You respected your father then, did you not? _

The elevator door opened and Kazuya found himself on the top of the Mishima building. It was now dark, the moon obscured by clouds. _You trusted him_.

Devil continued. _He betrayed you...he tried to kill you. _Kazuya clenched his fists. _You are afraid to trust anyone because you believe that if you do they will behave in the same manner that your father did_.

"Leave me alone." Kazuya said shakily.

_You should be afraid_. Devil warned. _That wench **will** betray you, if you let yourself fall in love with her...she will hurt you_.

"I do not—"

_Do not attempt to deceive yourself. Why do you think you have been behaving so strangely? Why do you agree to meet with her? Why! _

"Shut up!" Kazuya felt himself begin to lose control. _You call me a demon, but what is **she**? She is the worse type of demon in existence...she is a **woman**. When you least expect it you will find a knife in your back_.

Kazuya yelled. "SHUT UP!" He looked up at the sky and screamed as he lost control of his body and consciousness. A few seconds later Devil felt the night breeze on his skin. Extending his wings he flew into the dark sky.

"_...And don't forget, only three more days until the King of the Iron Fist Tournament Two; it promises to be an exiting and unforgettable event! That wraps up the news for tonight. Join us again—"_

Kazuya turned off the television set and dropped the remote on the coffee table. He then made his way to the bottle of Scotch resting on an ebony table by the large, matching bookcase.

"Mr. Mishima, there is someone here to see you." He was interrupted by the maid just as he picked up a glass.

"Who is it?"

"Miss Jun Kazama."

He set the glass back by the bottle. He didn't think she would come to his house, especially after their meeting the day before had ended so abruptly. "Send her in."

"Yes, sir." The maid left the TV room.

A few seconds later he watched Jun enter. "Hi." She smiled. She wore a simple white dress that in his opinion made her look almost like an angel.

"What brings you here?" He asked indifferently.

Jun looked down. "I need to tell you something. It's not something that can wait...I came at this hour because I knew I would have to do it before I lost my courage."

The look on her face told Kazuya that he was not going to like what he was about to hear.

"I don't know how you'll react..." He didn't speak. Jun turned around and started pacing slowly, it was obvious that she was stalling for time.

"You know where I work." She began. "And you probably remember what we talked about during our first meeting." She gave him a sidelong glance. "Um...About the endangered animals."

Kazuya rolled his eyes. "If you know, and I know, why do you have to repeat it?"

"Sorry..." She smiled weakly then turned away. "I know I haven't brought it up after that, but...All this time, my assignment has been..." She took a deep breath and turned to face him. "...It has been to gather evidence...to arrest you for the smuggling of protected animals."

Kazuya stared at her for a long moment, trying to sort out his emotions; he didn't know whether to be angry or hurt or both. All this time he had been nothing more than an assignment? He had trusted her, she had been the only person that he had ever trusted and she had betrayed him. Devil had been right.

"...You lied to me..." He felt his anger quickly rising. "...You lied to me..." He should never have allowed himself to trust her. He had let his guard down and was betrayed.

He slowly advanced toward her, his anger growing with each passing second. He knew what was coming next. "I know I lied to you," Jun continued to face him. "And I truly am sorry."

"I find that hard to believe."

"I quit my job. I never expected—"

"To fall in love with me?" Kazuya interrupted. _I warned you..._Devil's voice rang inside his head.

Jun looked down again. "...Yes."

I_ told you she would betray you_.

"How do I know this isn't just part of your assignment!"

"I'm telling you the truth and—"

"How can I trust you!" He took hold of her upper arms. "How can I know that you are telling me the truth! You already lied to me!" He could feel Devil beginning to surface. In an instant his eyes went from brown to a glowing red.

Jun uttered a small gasp. "K-kazuya, what's wrong? You're hurting me." She tried to squirm away.

"You need to leave." Kazuya let go of her and covered his face with his hands. "...You need to leave before I lose control." He had wanted to hurt her, but now he was afraid to do it. He saw something in her eyes, something that he had never seen in anyone before...Could she be telling the truth?

_You know very well that she lies_.

If only Devil would let him think...

"I won't leave." She resolutely took a step toward him.

"Jun, you don't know what you're doing—"

"Tell me what's wrong." She pleaded. What could he tell her? "I'm going to stay." She said. "I don't know what's happening to you, but I want to help." She took another step toward him. "I'm sorry I lied...but I swear you can trust me."

"Jun—"

"You can be sure that I won't hurt you...not ever again. Just like I'm sure that you won't hurt me." She was now standing mere inches away from him.

"What makes you think that he won't hurt you?" Kazuya's voice sounded different, deeper and raspier.

Jun looked as if she were ready to take a step back, but opted to take his hand instead. "Who are you?"

"That is the least of your concerns."

She looked into his eyes. "I'm not afraid of you, whoever you are."

He yanked his hand away. "You weak mortal, I will crush you."

"I may be a mortal, but I am far from weak." She took his hand again. "Kazuya, you can't let him take control." His muscles tensed. "Come back to me." He tried to pull his hand away, but she held it tightly. "Come back, Kazuya."

"Jun..." Kazuya felt himself returning, his eyes were brown once more; somehow he had not completely transformed, had it been her doing? "Did I hurt you?" He asked concerned.

"No."

He let go of her hand and collapsed on the leather couch, he felt tired; beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. "...I..." How could he explained what happened?

"Are you all right?" Jun knelt beside him.

"Why haven't you left?" He wanted to know why she had stayed instead of running in fear, but the question had come out differently.

"Would you like me to?" A look of hurt momentarily crossed her features.

"That would be best."

"Are you still angry with me?" She asked concerned.

Kazuya thought for a moment. "...I don't know..."

"Will you be all right?" Jun asked; he nodded. "Then I'll leave." He nodded again.

He watched as she stood up. "...You're not scared?" He asked before he could think about what he was saying.

"I have no need to be." She exited the room, leaving Kazuya alone with his thoughts.


	4. Brother, Brother

Chapter 3

(Brother, Brother)

"_...we stare each other down_

_Like victims in the grind_

_Probing all the weakness_

_And hurt still left behind..."_

--Savage Garden (Tears of Pearls)

"Miss Kazama is here to see you." Kazuya heard Sayuri's voice at the other end of the line.

"...Send her in." He hung up, stood from his black leather chair and walked to the front of his desk.

A moment later Jun entered the office. "How are you feeling?" She asked as she softly closed the door.

"...Fine."

"...So...are you angry with me?"

"After what you witnessed last night that's your main concern?" Kazuya asked amazed.

Jun shrugged her shoulders. "It takes a lot to surprise me."

Kazuya was silent for a moment. She wasn't scared of him...he had been certain that she would be. "...Why did you lie to me?" Somehow he had thought that he would be angry with her, but was surprised at how disappointed his voice sounded.

Jun was silent for a moment. "...I hate lying." She finally said. "I have done that very few times in my life...only once to someone I care about." Kazuya continued to look at her. "I started working for the WWWC because the cause was important to me; I never expected to be given an assignment like this." She sighed. "I didn't want to do it, but I was told very clearly that if I didn't I'd be fired. I didn't want to lose my job...so I took the assignment." She looked down. "I'm not proud of what I did, in fact, I deeply regret it, especially knowing that I hurt you. I don't think anything is worth that feeling so as I told you yesterday...I quit." She looked up at him again. "I'm sorry." He could see that tears had welled up in her eyes.

How was he supposed to feel? He wanted to be angry with her, but he couldn't...Why? What could he say? For the first time in many years he was confused.

"...I'll leave now, if you want."

He felt panic all of the sudden; he couldn't let her leave. He wanted to tell her, he wanted to hold her and ask her to stay...but he couldn't, he stayed rooted to the spot. "...I'm still angry." He said after a few seconds.

The expression on her face suddenly changed to a smile, without warning she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Kazuya was surprised at first, but soon began to accept his fate.

"I'm sorry." Jun pulled back looking embarrassed. "This isn't really like me. I'm just so happy that you understand...that you forgive me, there was no need for you to say anymore."

Kazuya looked intently into her eyes, how had she known? "I never said that I forgave you."

Jun smiled. "You didn't have to say it. I know."

His eyes narrowed. "What are you? Psychic or something?"

"Something."

What was it about this woman that made him act so differently around her, so unlike himself? He felt at ease with her.

Jun walked up to his desk, she stopped there and began to trace an invisible pattern with her finger on it. Her smile slowly started to fade.

It was obvious that she was trying to tell him something else. Her hesitation made Kazuya a little impatient; he cocked his head and folded his arms across his broad chest. "What is it?"

"I wanted to tell you this before you found out for yourself." She said quickly, apparently noticing that he was becoming impatient.

Kazuya sighed. "What is it now?"

"I've decided to enter the tournament." She said turning to fully face him.

"You have got to be joking." Kazuya put a hand to his forehead.

"I'm not joking."

"Jun...This is a fighting tournament."

"Yes."

"Fighting as in pain, blood—"

"And broken bones, maybe even death." Jun added. "I'm well aware of what it means."

"Then why are you entering it?"

"I have my reasons."

He could not believe what he was hearing, and he didn't think that she fully understood what it meant. "And just what are those reasons?"

"They're mine."

"There are experienced fighters entering this, men twice your size who will not hesitate to beat you to bloody pulp!"

"Not if I beat them first. And what makes you think that I'm not an experienced fighter? Do you think I'd be entering if I weren't?"

"I don't know, all I know is that you shouldn't enter."

"Why?"

"Why!" Heihachi, Lee, Paul Phoenix and so many other skilled fighters were entering the tournament, how could Jun stand a chance? Even if she did, if she somehow were victorious that meant that he would have to fight her.

Jun took a step toward him. "Don't yell at me." She said firmly, he was surprised to hear anyone speak to him in that tone. Had it been anyone else there would have been dire consequences. "And that is very selfish, Kazuya."

"I wasn't yelling! And what do you mean selfish?" He too took a step forward.

"You don't want me to enter because you're worried about me."

He nearly let his jaw drop, how had she known. "I never said—"

"Don't yell. How do you think I feel? Don't you think I'm worried?" They were both silent for a moment. "...After what I saw last night...you don't think that I'll be worried? Don't you think it's selfish to try to stop me from entering on account of your feelings, when you give no regard to mine?"

"...Jun..." What could he say to that? He knew she was right.

"There is no way that you can stop me."

The look in her eyes told him that any attempt he made would be futile, and so he decided to leave it at that. At that moment he admired her, he admired her courage and determination. She was truly like no other.

"Is Kazuya in his office?" Lee asked Sayuri as he stormed in.

"Lee! When did you get back?" She asked a little more scared than surprised. Did Kazuya tell him what had happened between them?

"Just now. Is he in his office?" He asked again.

"Yes, why?" Lee mumbled something that she couldn't understand then made his way into Kazuya's office. She stood up from her chair. "Wait he's with—" It was too late, Lee was inside and the door had already closed.

What if Kazuya had somehow told him? But he would have said something to her? Wouldn't he? _There's no way that he can know,_ she thought trying to convince herself. She picked up a highlighter and attempted to go back to her work, but all she found herself doing was staring at Kazuya's door.

When Lee entered he was surprised to see a woman in Kazuya's office. "What are you doing here?" Kazuya asked.

"I need to talk to you, it's urgent."

"I'll call you tonight." The woman told Kazuya, she offered Lee a small bow then made her way out the door.

"You seem to forget who you're talking to." Kazuya said as he advanced toward him.

"I've found out that someone plans to kill you." Lee said ignoring his comment.

Kazuya's eyes narrowed, he stopped when he was mere inches away from him. "What were you really doing all this time?"

"Never mind that. Someone's hired an assassin to kill you at the tournament!" Lee said exasperated.

Kazuya grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and spinning around slammed him on his desk. "I asked you a damned question!"

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Lee pushed Kazuya out of the way and stood up. "I just told you that someone is trying to fucking kill you!"

"Why would that even surprise me!" Kazuya yelled. "And what the hell is wrong with _you_! You're talking to me as if we were equals!"

For a few seconds he didn't know what to say, he couldn't imagine hearing a more hurtful comment. All he had wanted to do was help him, perhaps even protect him, but he didn't care...It was useless. "...The Chinese Mafia is not a good group of people to upset." Lee said knowing that it was best to ignore what he'd just heard. "I heard that they have hired an assassin to kill you at the tournament."

Kazuya walked over to his desk and picked up his phone. "Sayuri, bring me the Bennett file." He hung up and turned toward Lee once more. "Let them and their little assassin try." He said, a smug expression on his face.

Lee took a deep breath and ran his hands through his platinum hair. "Kazuya, this is not a damn game." His voice was barely above a whisper.

"No. It's a tournament, and I'm going to win it, assassin or no assassin."

"You are not invincible."

At this Kazuya walked to where Lee was standing and without warning backhanded him across the face. "Who are you to say what I am and what I'm not?" Lee slowly turned to face him.

"Here is your file." Neither had heard Sayuri enter the office.

"Put it on my desk." Kazuya said, his eyes still locked with his brother's. Apparently she had not witnessed the incident.

Sayuri did as she was told. "Anything else?" She asked.

"No."

She quietly stepped out.

"Fine." Lee smiled weakly as he shook his head. "Get yourself killed." With that he turned around and walked toward the door.

"By the way, Lee," Kazuya called after him. "I _am_ invincible." Not wanting to hear anymore Lee walked out.

Five thirty-six a.m. Lee looked at the digital clock resting on his bedside table. He had set the alarm to go off at six, but now it seemed as if he wouldn't need it. He turned to his left and fixed his eyes on the woman who slept beside him. He had been with her for more than a year; even longer than he had been with Anna...Anna, he had seen her name on the list of those entering the tournament, he hoped that he wouldn't have to fight her...or even see her. Though he never admitted it to anyone he was still very hurt by what she had done...but there was no point in thinking about that.

He removed a strand of hair from Sayuri's face; she was truly beautiful...as beautiful as Anna, yet so very different. Why was he with her? He wondered as he watched her sleep. He had never been a one-woman-man...he still wasn't, he had not been even when he was with Anna...He did, however, know why Sayuri was with him, he knew that she loved him...she was probably the only person in the world who did..._So...that was why I'm with her_, he shook his head. It was nice to come home to someone who heard what he had to say, to someone who cared. He would love her...one day...because she deserved it. Until then...well, he was doing his best to be faithful.

Lee was taken back to the day when he had met her, just a few days after he and Anna had broken up. She had looked so lost and alone, and she was so beautiful. A small-town girl in Tokyo for the first time, trying to find a job, that day he had arranged for her to be hired for the position of assistant secretary. She didn't know it but it had been solely because Lee was attracted to her, it had been mere coincidence that she had turned out to be an efficient secretary.

He had been neglecting her as of late, and he knew that she didn't deserve that. He couldn't remember the last time that they had gone out, though they saw each other at the office every day...and at home. If the tournament turned out as he hoped he would persuade Sayuri to transfer to a different office.

"Lee?" He was startled by Sayuri's sleepy voice.

"What is it?" He asked as he gently stroked her hair.

"What time is it?"

"Five forty-five."

"Are you going to get up already?"

"Might as well."

"Are you nervous?"

It was the day of the tournament, and though he wasn't nervous about having to fight, he was nervous about his brother. "I'm just worried about Kazuya."

"Why?" Lee wasn't sure, but he though that he caught a hint of anger in her voice.

"Someone has hired an assassin to kill him."

She sat up. "Have you told him?" Lee nodded. "What did he say?"

"Basically that he didn't care." He sighed.

"...Lee..." She laid her head on his chest. "...You did what you could."

"Did I?" Lee scoffed.

Sayuri sat up again. "The only other thing to do would be to take the damn bullet for him." She said angrily.

"Are you mad at me now?" He sat up as well.

"No, I'm not mad it's just..." She looked pensive for a moment.

"Just what?"

"...Do you think he gives a damn about what happens to you?"

Lee smiled sadly; he knew he didn't. "...I can't just sit back and watch it all happen?"

"..._He_ would."

"How do you know? Why do you hate him so much?" It was odd that she was referring to Kazuya in that way, he had never seen that side of her before.

"I don't hate him." Lee noticed that she lowered her head as she said it. "I just would like you to worry about yourself instead of worrying about the people who wouldn't do the same for you."

They were both silent for a moment. "...I'm sorry." Lee finally said.

"For what?"

"Neglecting you all this time...you don't deserve it."

Sayuri covered her face with her hands. "...Please don't say that..."

"Don't say what?" She lowered her hands but looked down at the sheets. "Sayuri, what?"

They were suddenly interrupted by the ringing of the alarm; Lee reached for it and turned it off.

Sayuri climbed out of bed, adjusted the strap of her silky nightgown and grabbed the white robe that had been resting on the headboard. As she was about to put it on Lee notice that she became pale. "Are you all right?" He asked concerned. Sayuri dropped the robe and made a dash for the bathroom. Lee made a face as he heard her vomit. A short moment later he heard her brushing her teeth.

He too climbed out of bed and proceeded to put on his robe as he walked to the bathroom. He knocked on the door. "Are you feeling all right?"

She opened the door. "Fine." She said as she stepped out.

"You're not sick, are you?"

She shook her head. "I'm probably just nervous about the tournament." She walked to the bed and put on her robe. "I'll go make us some coffee." She said heading toward the door.

Lee watched her walk out; he hoped that she wasn't sick. He looked at the clock again; it was seven past six. He needed to get ready, in less than three hours the tournament would begin.


	5. Ghost of Yesterday

Chapter 4

(Ghost of Yesterday)

""

-

Lee stepped out of his car and headed toward the site of the first fight, Sayuri following behind him. Upon entering the arena area he noticed that people were already occupying nearly half the bleachers; all around camera crews could be seen setting up their equipment.

"Asami!" Sayuri waved to a young woman talking to one of the cameramen. "She works for Channel Five." She turned to Lee. "I haven't seen her in months I'm going to talk to her." She said taking off in her direction.

Lee looked around, most of the fighters were already there, he saw a few that he recognized but also some new faces. No Heihachi yet, though, he figured that given the circumstances he was probably going to wait until the last possible minute.

"Hi."

He turned around when he heard a soft female voice. "...Anna."

"Surprised to see me?"

"No, I know every fighter who is going to participate."

"Oh."

They were both silent as they stared into each other's eyes. What could he say to her? He had known that she would be there, but he still had no idea what to do or say.

"So, how have you been?" Anna finally broke the silence.

"Fine. You?"

"All right, I suppose."

Silence again. She always looked so perfect. She wore a long red silk dress with a slit on the side and matching high-heeled shoes. She was just as beautiful as ever.

"Did you come by yourself?" She asked.

"No. I came with her." Lee pointed in Sayuri's direction.

"The one in the blue dress?" He nodded. "Wow, she's very pretty. New girlfriend?"

"Hardly, we've been together for over a year."

"Oh?" She sounded surprised. "Does she know about everyone else that you're dating?"

Lee felt angry all of the sudden. "That is not your concern, and you should be one to talk, you're the one who got engaged to some rockstar while we were still together."

Anna shrugged casually, dismissing his comment. "Have you seen Nina?" That question he didn't expect, it seemed to come from nowhere.

He realized that it was best not to speak of the past. "Not yet. Are you on speaking terms today?" He knew of the rivalry between Anna and her sister; it had been one of Anna's favorite subjects to talk about.

She bit her lower lip, and looked at her fingernails as if checking for chips on her red nail polish. This was something Lee recognized very well; she would always do that when she was hiding something or when she was nervous. "...No, but I need to see her, it's very important."

"Is everything all right?"

"...Yeah...I see your girlfriend is giving me dirty looks, so I'd better go." Lee looked toward Sayuri to see her staring at them. "See you later." Anna said and turned to leave, she hesitated a little and turned back to face Lee. "...If you see Nina..." She bit her lip again. "...Never mind..." This time she walked toward the exit.

"Who was that?" Lee had been preoccupied watching her leave and had not noticed Sayuri standing beside him.

"What?"

"Who was that?" She asked again.

"...No one important." Lee said as he put his arm around her.

She was out there, standing near the center of the arena. He hoped that she would win...Or did he? If she won this fight it would mean that he might have to fight her...But if she didn't—

"I suspect Mr. Mishima was not happy about Miss Kazama entering the tournament." Sayuri commented bringing Lee back to reality.

"...I suppose..."

"Personally, I want Miss Kazama to win, she seems nice enough. At least she's dressed properly for a fight."

"...I guess..."

"And look at the way the other one just struts—"

"I'm sure the _other one _must have a name." Lee said turning to Sayuri.

"Why would you care?" Sayuri sounded quite suspicious.

"...I don't. It just sounded rude." Lee attempted to recover.

"I know she's the one you were talking to earlier."

"Sayuri, please. Let's just watch the fight." Sayuri stared at him for a short moment then to his relief turned her eyes to the arena.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" The announcer began. "Welcome to the King of Iron Fist Tournament Two! Our first fight is between two lovely ladies. You'll remember our first one from the last tournament, on my right the beautiful, 'Lighting Scarlet'...Anna Williams!" The arena was suddenly filled with applause, cheers and 'booing'.

"On my left, a newcomer to the tournament, the lovely and charming, Jun Kazama!" The noise in the arena was deafening, it seemed Jun was the favorite; she bowed slightly toward the audience and then to her opponent. Lee noticed that she glanced toward where Kazuya was sitting with his sponsors. "With that said, let the tournament begin!"

"Fighters ready?" Both women stood in their ready stances. "Fight!"

Kazuya could not help but smile as he watched the fight. He had felt a little nervous for Jun in the beginning, however, now it was evident that Anna was no match for her. Try as she might Anna had not landed a single hit on her, now, in one swift movement Jun had pinned Anna to the ground and at the same time twisted her leg in what looked to be a very painful manner. Anna was not able to get up, she laid on the ground holding her leg.

"Jun Kazama wins!" Jun was surrounded by applause, she did a short kata that Kazuya thought must have been her own style, she then flashed him a smile and exited the arena.

"Congratulations Miss Kazama!" The announcer spoke into the microphone. "The next fight will begin in one hour. Baek Doo San vs. Bruce Irvin! See you all then!"

Kazuya sat in his home office revising the list of the fighters for the next day. Jun, Baek Doo San, Lee, Lei Wulong and Heihachi had all advanced to the next round...Heihachi...soon he would be rid of him.

_**We** will be rid of him_. Devil reminded him.

"I don't need your help to do that."

_Do not be ungrateful, Kazuya. After all, **I** am the sole reason that you are still alive._

That Kazuya could not argue with, but it didn't mean that he needed Devil's help to beat Heihachi. His thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on the door. Kazuya stood up from his chair and went to open it.

"Miss Kazama is here to see you, sir." A middle-aged Japanese woman stood before Kazuya.

"Have her wait in the library, I'll be there shortly."

"Yes, sir." She bowed slightly and closed the door.

_That wench will be our downfall. _

"She has a name." Kazuya defended. "And she will not be my downfall."

_She is making you softer, soon you will make peace with your father and willingly give him the Zaibatsu._

"That will never happen. Now, leave me be." With that Kazuya locked the door to his office and headed to the library.

Upon entering the library Kazuya saw Jun leafing through one of the books. Apparently hearing him she put the book back on the shelf and turned toward him.

"You did well today." Was the first thing Kazuya said.

Jun walked up to him and draped her arms around his neck. "Were you impressed?" She asked smiling.

Though he was, he decided not to comment. "Perhaps you should consider dropping out, you're fighting the sumo tomorrow."

"You don't think I can win?"

"That is not the issue."

"What is?"

"Not that."

She let go of him. "It's all right if you doubt my abilities." There was a short moment of silence. "...I saw your father..." Jun said as she turned her back to Kazuya.

"What!" He took hold of her upper arm and turned her toward him again. "You didn't speak to him, did you?"

"He wouldn't let me, but I tried."

Kazuya let go of her and fully faced her. "I want you to stay away from him." He stated firmly.

"You _want_ me to stay away?" Jun crossed her arms.

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"I know that you're afraid that he'll hurt me," Kazuya looked at her openmouthed, how did she know? "But I don't think he will, why would he?"

"Because!"

"Don't yell at me, Kazuya Mishima." She took a step toward him. "You are being selfish again."

"Don't start with that." He said in a low voice.

"He wants to hurt _you_, not me." She took on a far away look. "...You never told me about your relationship with him, but...I could see it in his eyes...his hatred for you." She was suddenly on the defensive again. "You're only concerned about your feelings, you just don't give a damn about how I feel. All I want is for you to be at peace with him."

Kazuya advanced toward her. "I hate that man, I can never, never make peace with him."

Jun sighed. "Kazuya, hate can bring nothing good, especially when it is among families. How will you be able to face your children one day? How could you tell them that you hated their grandfather? What sort of example will that be for them?"

He stopped inches from her. "Stop meddling in other people's business. And if all you came here to do was give me a sermon..." He motioned toward the door.

Jun stared into his eyes for a few moments, then quietly made her way to the door. She turned and looked at Kazuya once more, then softly closed it behind her.


	6. Confession

Chapter 5

(Confession)

"_...I tried to kill the pain_

_But only brought more...so much more"_

–Evanescence (Tourniquet)

Kazuya had felt a sense of emptiness the entire day. The second day of the tournament was over, Jun had won her fight against the sumo, Ganryu, it had been close, but she had managed to win. He had wanted to talk with her after the fight, but he had been told that she was gone, there was only one other thing he could do.

He saw Sayuri standing by the men's locker rooms leafing through a magazine, she was obviously waiting for Lee; he had just finished his fight and won.

"Sayuri." He saw her jump at the sound of his voice.

"What?" She looked up.

"I have something for you to do."

Sayuri closed her magazine. "Well fancy that, but..." She looked at her watch. "What is this? Oh dear, I am off the clock." She once again opened the magazine.

Kazuya ignored her comment. "I need you to go into my office and find Jun's address."

She once again closed the magazine. "After weeks of following her like a lost puppy you still don't know where she lives?"

Kazuya was in no mood for her comments, he began to advance toward her. "You will do as I say." He said menacingly.

"I am off the clock." She countered.

Kazuya pushed her against the wall, causing her to bump her head, then took hold of her right wrist. "You seem to have forgotten about our little deal. I can walk in there right now and tell Lee everything."

"You're hurting me." She said trying to squirm away while rubbing the back of her head with her left hand.

He squeezed her wrist tighter. "Listen, you god-forsaken bitch, go to my office, find me her address and when you have it call me on my cell phone."

"All right." He let go of her wrist. "Just don't tell him anything." She stood for about one second looking at the locker room door.

"Why are you still standing there?" Kazuya questioned.

"I need to wait for Lee so I can tell him."

"Go. I will let him know."

"You won't tell him _anything_, will you?"

"If you don't leave right now, I will." He threatened.

Glancing at the locker room door one last time Sayuri turned and headed toward the exit.

A few seconds later Lee emerged, a gym bag hanging over his left shoulder. "Where is Sayuri?" He asked as he looked around.

"I asked her to run an errand for me." Kazuya stated.

Lee looked suspiciously at him. "She's not working today."

"I know, but she complied, I heard not one word of protest from her."

"Why?"

He smirked. "That is something that you should ask her." With that Kazuya turned on his heel and proceeded toward the exit. He wished he could hear the conversation between them later.

Lee sat on the couch, smoking one of his menthol cigarettes. It was almost ten o'clock when he heard Sayuri's car reach the driveway. About one minute later he heard her open the door. "Where were you?" He asked without turning.

Sayuri opened the closet door then hung her coat and purse inside. "I was running an errand."

"It must have been important." He stood up and set his cigarette on the ashtray.

"Not really." She answered nonchalantly.

"You didn't even tell me that you were leaving, or where you were going." He turned to face her.

"I didn't think it mattered, I mean, it's not like you've never done something like that, it's not like I always know where _you_ are."

"You don't have to get so defensive, I just want to know where you were."

"I told you. Running an errand...nothing important." Lee noticed that she was trying to avoid his eyes.

"An errand for Kazuya."

Sayuri looked up at him then quickly adverted his gaze. "If you already knew why were you questioning me?"

"Because he said I should."

She seemed to pale slightly. "...What did he say?"

"That I should ask you why you were working for him during your time off."

She hesitated for a short moment. "...He promised me...an extra day off if I went to the Zaibatsu to find him Jun Kazama's address."

"Is that all?" She nodded. "Why didn't you just say so?"

Sayuri shrugged. "I thought you'd be mad." Lee walked back to the couch once more. "Are you hungry?" She asked. "I could make you something."

"I'm fine."

She bit her lower lip. "Do you want me to get you a drink?"

"No, thanks."

"Are you sure, because—"

"Sayuri, I'm fine."

She fixed her eyes on the carpet. "...All right. I...I'm going to bed then." Lee nodded; she glanced at him one last time then made her way upstairs.

Lee took another cigarette out of his pack; he knew there was something that she wasn't telling him.

Kazuya knocked on the door of apartment 204. He didn't know what he was going to say, he had not even thought about it on his way there, all he knew was that he needed to see her.

_You're even more pathetic than I thought._ Devil said, but Kazuya decided to ignore him.

A few seconds later the door was opened by Jun Kazama; she didn't smile as per usual, she merely stared at him.

They were both silent for a moment, then Jun spoke. "...You threw me out." She placed a delicate hand on her hip while the other held the doorknob.

Kazuya sighed. "...May I come in?"

"Only if you let me throw you out." For a short moment Kazuya thought she was joking, but her expression remained serious.

Kazuya shrugged, Jun moved away from the door and motioned him inside. It was a small apartment with cheap furniture, not at all impressive, but was very tidy.

After a short and awkward silence Kazuya finally spoke. "...I truly think that you should stay away from Heihachi, what happens between us is not your concern."

"I didn't mean to _meddle_ in your business, I just wanted to help."

He lowered his voice. "...You don't know what he's like."

"Then tell me." Jun uttered softly.

Kazuya turned his back to her, he took a deep breath closed his eyes and slowly exhaled. "...I was five years old...only five. A little boy eager to please his father, to make him proud...but I never could." He turned to face Jun. "He would train me for hours, and I would always do my best...but it was never enough, _never._ We went out to train one day," Kazuya looked up at the ceiling. "I still remember it clearly, it haunts me every day...I was having trouble mastering a certain form, I was tired and hungry so I asked my _father_ if we could go home." He put his hands in his pockets and began to slowly pace the apartment. "Heihachi told me that _I'd_ be able to go as soon as I completed a simple task...to climb up a trench. 'I'll go back,' Heihachi told me, 'and I'll wait for you at home.' He grabbed me by the arm and threw me down...I can't remember ever being in more pain than when I landed at the bottom..."

Kazuya paused for a while, he looked at Jun who had a hand over her mouth.

Kazuya continued. "...But I survived...I was so scared, scared of dying, scared of the pain, but then...then _he_ came...Devil...he offered me my life back in exchange for...Let's just call it _a place to stay_. Of course, being a scared child I didn't even think about refusing his offer...but now I..." He shook his head and smiled weakly. "Heihachi got quite a shock when he saw that I had returned..." There was another long pause. "That's not all, a few years later he adopted Lee, before you think I'm a selfish bastard let me explain. He adopted him to replace _me_, he taught Lee everything there was to know about running the Zaibatsu and named him his heir. Do you have any idea how that made me feel? After all my suffering, everything that I'd endured, he was going to give the Zaibatsu to someone who was not even his flesh and blood...I confronted him about it; he said he wanted someone capable of running the Zaibatsu, someone who was the opposite of me, someone with all the qualities that I lacked. I know he did that just to spite me, his sort of revenge on me for surviving that day."

He walked up to Jun. "...That is why I ask you to stay away from him."

Tears began to run down Jun's face. "Why didn't you tell me?" She asked as she pulled him into a hug.

Kazuya stroked her hair. "It's not something I go around telling everyone."

She buried her face into his chest. "I'm sorry, I just wanted you to be at peace."

They were silent for a while, Kazuya enjoying the warmth of her body, the smell of her hair. Why had he told her? Why had the words been able to flow so easily? "...Kazuya..." She looked into his eyes. "...Will you stay with me tonight?"

Kazuya kissed her, and as he did he realized that he had never wanted anything more.


	7. Defeat

Chapter 6

(Defeat)

"_...I hold within my hand  
Grains of the golden sand--  
How few! Yet how they creep  
Through my fingers to the deep,  
While I weep--while I weep!"_

--Edgar Allan Poe(A Dream Within a Dream)

The second fight of the third day...Kazuya watched as Heihachi defeated Baek Doo San. The Korean Tae Kwon Do master was an impressive fighter who had at times left the spectators wondering who the winner would be. But no matter how well he fought he still lacked the anger and determination that Heihachi possessed, and thus was defeated after long and grueling fight.

"Heihachi Mishima wins!" The announcer's voice resounded in the arena. Heihachi kneeled down and crossed his arms, then looked up and fixed his eyes on Kazuya for a moment. Soon after he stood up and walked out of the arena, Kazuya watching as he did so.

He would make it to the finals, Kazuya knew. He also knew that in the end he would have to fight him...they would be the only ones left.

_Tomorrow we shall achieve victory._

Kazuya heard the familiar voice inside his head. "That we will." He agreed.

"Are you sure you're all right?"

"For the hundredth time, Kazuya, I'm fine." Jun smiled as she sat on the couch in the TV room.

Kazuya didn't want to say it, but he was relieved to know that Jun was officially out of the tournament. The last fight of the day had been that of Jun and Paul Phoenix, Jun had tried her best but that had not seemed to be enough.

The matches were set for the next day: Heihachi would fight Paul Phoenix at nine a.m. At eleven a.m. Lee would fight the victor, though Kazuya knew it would be Heihachi, he knew that Lee would not win. At one p.m. Kazuya would face his father once more, just as he had two years prior.

"Are _you_ all right?" Kazuya's thoughts were interrupted by Jun's angelic voice.

"What?"

Jun stood up and began to walk toward him. "You were just staring off into space." She draped her arms around his neck.

"Are you sure your head doesn't hurt?"

Jun rolled her eyes. "I swear if you ask me one more time I'll leave." She warned.

"Well he kicked you pretty hard." Kazuya reminded her. "For a moment I thought he had killed you."

"I was only unconscious."

"_Only_?"

"It was only for a few seconds, and the doctor said that I'm fine." She smiled.

Kazuya stared into her deep, brown eyes. What would he do if anything ever happened to her? He didn't even want to think about it. He kissed her softly; when the kiss ended he saw her beautiful face smiling at him. He kissed her again, this time with more passion, to which she eagerly responded. All his worries disappeared at that moment, all he knew was that he wanted her, and something told him that she felt the same.

As he guided her toward the couch Jun pulled away. "Here?" She asked.

"What?" Kazuya asked confused.

"...This place seems rather public..." She smiled shyly.

He agreed. Taking her hand in his he guided her out the door.

"KAZUYA!" Kazuya sat up as he heard Jun's scream shatter the silence of the morning.

"What's wrong?" A shaking Jun Kazama was sitting up on the bed, tears streaming down her face.

She turned toward Kazuya as she heard his voice. "You...can't fight today." She said anxiously.

"What do you mean?" He was sure that she'd had a nightmare.

"Please, Kazuya..." She wrapped her delicate hands around his. "...Please don't fight."

"Why?"

"If you fight your father you will die." She gripped his hands tightly.

"...Jun..." He moved his right hand away from hers and gently wiped her tears. "You must have had a dream."

Jun shook her had vigorously. "It wasn't a dream!" She withdrew her hands. "I saw it...You were wearing a white Gi...and you were falling...falling as your father watched..."

"It was a dream." Kazuya insisted.

"Please don't fight." She said again, ignoring his last statement.

"I can't do that."

Jun lowered her head. "...You...you wouldn't even do it for me?"

Kazuya took her chin in his thumb and forefinger gently raising her face. "You know I can't."

She moved her face away and looked down once more. "If you won't do it for me...will you at least..." She tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "...Will you at least do it for...for our child?"

Kazuya stared at her for a moment. "...What do you mean?"

She looked up at him. "I'm pregnant."

Kazuya felt very confused. "...From me?"

A look of hurt crossed Jun's features. "Of course! You know that you're the only man I've ever been with."

"But we've only been together twice," He held up two fingers. "And the last time was one day ago, so even if you were how would you know?" He stood up and began to get dressed.

"How would I know!" Jun raised herself to her knees while covering herself with the sheet. "How do you think I know?"

"I don't know! You tell me!"

"How am I able to control that demon inside you! How do I know that you're going to die if you fight! How do I know so many things that-"

Kazuya cut her off. "So you're fucking psychic? You have superhuman powers?"

"Would that be so strange! _You_ don't possess any supernatural powers!"

They were enveloped by a heavy silence. "...I don't believe you, Jun. You're just making all this up so that I won't fight Heihachi." Kazuya said quietly.

Jun sat back on the bed. "...I thought you knew me better than that..."

"Well, I obviously don't." Kazuya said as he made his way to the door.

"It's a long fall, Kazuya." Jun said, her voice emotionless.

Kazuya turned back to look at her once more. "But I have wings." He then continued on his way to the door.

It was nearing ten a.m. After waiting on Paul Phoenix for forty-five minutes it had been decided that he was disqualified. The fight scheduled for eleven had been moved to ten; with Paul out of the tournament it was now Lee Chaolan vs. Heihachi Mishima.

Lee stood in front of the full-length mirror in the men's locker room studying his reflection. A silver-haired man dressed in blue jeans and a black vest stared back at him, a look of confidence adorning his handsome features. He looked almost the same as he had two years ago, during the first King of Iron Fist Tournament...But inside he was almost a completely different man.

Adjusting his black leather gloves he spun on his heel and made his way through the exit.

"...Damn it! I won't let you!" He was surprised to hear a familiar female voice coming from the open door of the women's locker room.

"You've never stopped me before." Another female voice responded. They both spoke in English and both had a thick Irish accent.

He knew very well who the voices belonged to. "Nina!" He heard Anna yell as her sister stepped out of the locker room.

Without even noticing Lee Nina Williams walked through the emergency exit, which was located by the locker room door. "Nina!" Anna emerged from the room a split second after Nina had disappeared through the door.

"Anna, what's wrong?" Lee asked his former lover.

"Lee? Lee! Where did Nina go?" She looked frantically around.

"She just left through the emergency exit."

"I have to stop her..."

"What is she going to do?"

Anna looked hesitant for a short moment. "...She's here to kill Kazuya."

"What? So she's the assassin." Lee finished quietly.

"You knew about this?" Anna asked.

"I'd heard rumors, but...he didn't take me seriously...I have to warn him."

"Mr. Chaolan, you are needed in the arena, it's ten o'clock." A young Japanese woman holding a clipboard entered the hall then proceeded to exit after delivering her message.

"I'll tell him now, before the fight starts." Lee turned toward the exit.

"And I'll go try to find her..." Anna said. "...Lee, I..."

Lee turned. "What?"

Anna advanced toward him. "...I..." She stopped when she was mere inches away from him. Lee looked into her eyes for a moment; everything seemed to stop. "...I..." She inched her face closer and closer to his until their lips met. The kiss began slowly, but it became more passionate. Anna finally pulled away. She took a step back and looked down at the floor as she bit her lower lip. "...Good luck with the fight, and..." She shook her head. "Never mind." She said then hurried to the door through which Nina had exited.

Lee hesitated for a moment then ran toward the exit. Before heading to the arena he went up to the seats where Kazuya was watching the fight along with the rest of the sponsors.

"This is not where you need to be." Kazuya said as Lee approached him.

"Kazuya," Lee leaned close to his adopted brother. "The rumors about the assassin were true." He said quietly.

"Who is he?" Kazuya asked calmly.

"She." Lee corrected. "Nina Williams."

Kazuya signaled to one of his bodyguards, a Japanese man wearing a dark suit, who rapidly made his way to his boss. "I'll take care of it." Kazuya told Lee. "You better get out there," He motioned toward the arena. "The old man looks impatient."

"This is it!" The announcer's voice boomed around the arena. "Here are our last two finalists! At the end of this fight one of them will fight the current King of Iron Fist and the man responsible for bringing you the second King of Iron Fist Tournament, Kazuya Mishima!" Kazuya nodded in acknowledgment at the mention of his name as the arena exploded with cheers.

"We have a father and son competing for the title," The announcer continued. "To my right, the former owner of the Mishima Financial Empire, Heihachi Mishima! And to my left you know him as the Silver Haired Devil, Lee Chaolan!" The noise emitted by the spectators was deafening, it was unclear who was the favorite between the two fighters.

"Ready?" The announcer asked as he stepped away from the arena. The fighters nodded in response. "Fight!"

For a few seconds they stood motionless in their fighting stances, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

Lee was beginning to grow impatient, he was sure that Heihachi was waiting for him to move. _Damn him,_ Lee thought. Just as he was about to charge, Heihachi attacked with a powerful kick, Lee narrowly managed to avoid the hit. He countered with a kick of his own missing Heihachi by mere millimeters. Lee faked a right punch, which Heihachi tried to block giving Lee the opportunity to successfully land a kick on his father's chest.

Heihachi stumbled back a few steps then charged at his adopted son, fist raised in the air. Lee back flipped out of the way landing in his 'Hit Man' stance; with a smirk on his face he motioned Heihachi to attack.

"I could do this all day." Lee smiled, Heihachi looked hesitant, he cautiously moved toward Lee and as he reached him he attempted a kick. Lee's leg shot forward as he attempted to execute one of his favorite moves, the 'Scatter Kick', unfortunately for him Heihachi ducked and he missed. Heihachi took this opportunity to do an uppercut; it was perfectly executed hitting Lee in the chin causing him to fall to the ground.

Lee immediately catapulted up taking his stance once more. Heihachi charged once again, upon reaching his target he proceeded to deliver a flurry of kicks and punches, most of which Lee was able to block. He was being forced back by Heihachi, all he was able to do was block, he needed to do something, quickly. Taking a step forward Lee managed to break the barrage of punches with one of his own forcing Heihachi back, this was all he needed to begin his 'Infinite Chain Kick' attack.

Heihachi was now the one being driven back, but this didn't last long. Heihachi ducked out of the way and stepped back, then began to run at his opponent. When he had nearly reached him he spun around gathering energy, then thrust with the heels of his palms sending Lee flying back several feet. He landed on the ground with a thud. Lee recognized the attack, the 'Demon Executioner'.

With some effort Lee stood back up, Heihachi was coming at him again; he needed something good to counter with. He stepped back then as he jumped he executed a floating sidekick, narrowly missing Heihachi. When Lee landed Heihachi attacked doing the 'Demon Executioner' once more before Lee had time to react.

Lee landed on the ground again, his entire body ached, especially his chest. Just as he attempted to stand up he felt the weight of Heihachi on him, he was sitting on his waist. Heihachi proceeded to punch Lee several times, very few of these he was able to block. When Heihachi stood up he kicked Lee on his side then did his infamous 'Geta Stomp' on Lee's chest.

Lee yelled in pain as he felt his ribs break. _It can't be happening again,_ he thought, _I can't be defeated again._ He attempted to get up, but the pain was immense.

He felt Heihachi lift his head by pulling on his hair. "Foolish boy." Heihachi spat. "You can never beat me. This pain that you're feeling is nothing compared to what I have in store for you." He slammed his head on the ground then faced the spectators.

"Heihachi Mishima wins!" The announcer exclaimed as the arena exploded in a mixture of cheers and boos.

Lee lay motionless on the ground, his eyes closed. To the onlookers it may have seemed that he was in too much pain to move, but to him...the physical pain he was undergoing was _nothing_ compared to what he was feeling inside. He had lost...his pride had been trampled on...All the time that he had spent preparing for the tournament, for nothing..._nothing_...It had all been a waste of time. His hopes of restoring the honor of the Zaibatsu...gone...His future in Japan...lost. He would have to leave; he would have to resort to plan B.

"Lee!" He heard Sayuri's voice then felt her beside him.

"Excuse us, Miss." Two paramedics were now also by his side.

"Wait." Lee took hold of her wrist as she was about to move. "I need you to do something."

"Not now, Lee. You're hurt, let them help you first and then we'll talk." She said gently taking his hand.

"Sir," One of the paramedics insisted. "We really need her to move."

Lee ignored both. "I need you to go home and pack a suitcase for each of us, take my briefcase, then go to the airport and wait for me."

"Why?"

"I don't have time to explain."

"Sir, please, you're hurt."

"Lee, I want to stay with you in case you need anything."

"Damn it, Anna, will you just do as I say!" The reality of what he had said sank in when he saw the look of hurt on Sayuri's face.

"...I'm sorry, Sayuri." He closed his eyes it hurt to breathe, and talking made his pain even worse. "...Please, this is very important."

Sayuri closed her eyes as tears began to roll down her face. "...Very well." She nodded and stood up then headed toward the exit.

Lee felt the paramedics helping him on to the stretcher. _Defeated again, Buddha must hate me_.


	8. Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 7

(Ashes to Ashes...)

"_Lo! Death has reared himself a throne  
In a strange city lying alone   
Far down within the dim West  
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best  
Have gone to their eternal rest."_

--Edgar Allan Poe (Dream Land)

Kazuya watched with contempt as his brother was defeated, he had known it was inevitable. After Heihachi was declared the winner he began to advance toward the place where Kazuya was sitting. Kazuya stood up and took a step forward, his two bodyguards moved protectively closer to him.

Heihachi stood in front of his son, his face expressionless. They stood looking at each other for a few seconds, then Heihachi handed Kazuya a folded piece of paper. "I'd rather we finish this somewhere more private, wouldn't you agree." Kazuya nodded as he unfolded the paper. "Meet me there in thirty minutes."

"A volcano." Kazuya smirked. "Why am I not surprised?"

"I suppose you can imagine what happens to the loser."

Kazuya felt his blood boil as he remembered that day over twenty years before. He wanted nothing more than to finish Heihachi right then and there. _Calm yourself,_ the voice within him rang, _we will soon give him what he deserves._ Skillfully masking his anger Kazuya shrugged as he crumpled up the paper and dropped it on the ground. "I have to go get ready."

"Thirty minutes." Heihachi said heading for the exit.

"The Williams girl has been taken care of?" Kazuya asked his bodyguards without turning to face either one.

The younger of the two answered. "Yes sir, but..."

"What?" Kazuya asked impatiently.

"As she was being apprehended by the police she escaped...no one knows where she is."

"She failed her mission, she won't be back here." Kazuya said casually. "I have to leave, but I have to go alone."

"Alone? But, sir—"

"I am going alone." Kazuya was sure that the tone of his voice had settled the matter.

...A volcano..._"You were falling...falling as your father watched..."_ Jun's voice echoed inside Kazuya's head.

_She is wrong_. Kazuya heard Devil speak. _We cannot lose_.

Kazuya ignored him, he turned to the full-length mirror inside the men's locker room and tightened his black belt. After adjusting the top of his white Gi he looked back at the mirror... "_You were wearing a white Gi..._" He once again remembered Jun's words. She couldn't be right...could she? Kazuya removed the top of his Gi so that he was left in only the white pants and the black belt. He found himself a little more comfortable if Jun was only half right.

_You cannot take into account what the wench said_. Devil hissed. _She was desperate, she is wrong_.

Kazuya turned away from the mirror. "Let me concentrate, I have a tournament to win."

Once Kazuya arrived at the site where the fight was to take place he saw Heihachi waiting. He stepped out of his car and took in his surroundings; the place was barren and dusty with volcanic rocks littering the landscape. The volcano stood behind them, menacing; by the end of the day it would be someone's grave.

"I was beginning to think that you had changed your mind about coming." Heihachi taunted.

"I'd never pass up an opportunity to humiliate you, or better yet, to rid myself of you."

Heihachi was standing in an area that looked as if it had been cleared from most of the rocks; it was also fairly flat making for a perfect fighting 'arena'.

"I hope you didn't come here hoping to defeat me, _son_, because I would hate to disappoint you." Heihachi said adjusting the top of his black Gi.

"I'm sure you would." Kazuya approached his father. "I didn't come here hoping to defeat you, I will defeat you. I did it once, why not again? He stopped about five feet away from Heihachi. "Shall we begin?" He asked as he took his fighting stance.

"As you wish." Heihachi said doing the same. "Ready when you are."

Without warning Kazuya launched at Heihachi, upon reaching him he executed a high kick, striking his opponent on he side of the head. Taking advantage of the fact that Heihachi became a little dazed he also delivered a powerful punch to his jaw, sending him back a few steps. "You're more pathetic than I remember, you're going to be in the volcano much sooner than I expected." Kazuya taunted.

Heihachi took his fighting stance again, then began to advance slowly toward Kazuya. Kazuya knowing better than to stand and wait began to move slowly forward as well. When he was within reaching distance Heihachi threw a punch. Kazuya saw it coming and ducked out of the way then rose again, on his way up he did an uppercut which narrowly missed Heihachi. Being concentrated on his own attack Kazuya didn't have time to react to his father's powerful backhand, which struck him in the face. Heihachi then shot his leg forward kicking his son in the chest, which caused him to fall to the ground.

Kazuya reached out and grabbed Heihachi's foot; in less than a second Kazuya was standing over his father, ready to deliver a devastating blow. He raised his leg then quickly brought it down with tremendous force, Heihachi quickly catapulted up, Kazuya's heel struck the ground where his head had been only moments before.

Heihachi slowly advanced to the left, seeing this Kazuya blocked to the left, however at that precise moment Heihacni moved to the right with lightning speed. Before he could comprehend what was happening Kazuya felt himself being pushed to the side with incredible force. He fell to the ground, his right knee landing painfully on a rock as he felt dirt penetrate his mouth and nostrils. He recognized the attack, as he had experienced it before as a child and a young man, it was the 'Demon Executioner'. Just as he was about to get up Kazuya felt an immense pain in and on his head. "Not feeling so cocky now, are you?" He heard Heihachi's voice, at the same time he realized that he had kicked him in the head.

With some difficulty Kazuya stood up, his head throbbed and he found that it was painful to put pressure on his knee. Damn, he's fast for his age, Kazuya thought as he realized that he had also hurt his right shoulder. Heihachi was charging at him with the 'Demon Executioner' again, unfortunately for Kazuya the attack was once again successful, and thus, he found himself on the dirt once more.

"You can't win." Kazuya heard Heihachi as he felt him lift his head by pulling his hair, then slamming his head on the ground. Kazuya tried to stand up again, but Heihachi didn't let him as he was vigorously kicking at his sides.

_You cannot win alone_. Kazuya heard the familiar voice inside his head as he felt his body receive blow after blow. _**I** will defeat him_. With that Kazuya felt Devil begin to take over his body.

Heihachi saw as what had been Kazuya mere moments before transformed into a horned, purple-skinned creature, something he remembered all too well from the first tournament. Devil sprung up to its feet. Taking advantage of the surprised Heihachi he roughly grabbed his left arm then kicked the left, then the right side of his head sending him to the ground. Heihachi got up just in time to see what looked like a laser coming from Devil's forehead and straight at him, he barely managed to jump out of the way.

Devil now charged at him, kicking Heihachi in the chest as he reached him and sending him flying a few feet back. Heihachi landed with thud, he looked to be in tremendous pain as he held his lower back with his hands. "Foolish mortal," Devil said in his deep, raspy voice. "How did you ever think that you could defeat me?" He asked as he looked disdainfully at Heihachi. "You did not win two years ago, what made you to believe that you would achieve it now?" Heihachi slowly stood up. "Look at yourself," Devil made a face of disgust. "I have but to strike one more blow and you will be done for."

Without warning Heihachi threw a rock at him, when Devil moved out of the way to avoid it Heihachi rushed at him, knocking him to the ground. As Devil attempted to get up Heihachi grabbed hold of his head, placing his neck between his forearm and upper arm. With all the strength he could muster he pulled and turned the neck at the same time, letting go of him when he heard the bones crack. As Devil's body fell to the ground he transformed back to Kazuya. The fight was over.

Heihachi took a few moments to catch his breath then proceeded to pick Kazuya up in his arms and began to make his way up the hillside, toward the mouth of the volcano. Though it had been tiring, he made it to the top. Looking one last time at the face of his only son, his only blood relative...He dropped him into the volcano, watching as he fell.

Jun was close. After arriving at the arena she had been informed of the changes that had taken place after Paul Phoenix had failed to show. She had then gone to look for Kazuya, her search taking her to the locker room. There she had found the top of Kazuya's white Gi, she felt dizzy as she remembered the dream, as she saw his lifeless body fall down the volcano...she knew where it was located, she remembered passing by it once and feeling a sense of dread as she had. Leaving the locker room she had rushed to her car. Fifteen minutes later she was nearly there; if she hurried she might still be able to prevent what was about to happen.

When she reached the volcano she saw Kazuya's car, parking by it she stepped out and saw what looked like the site of the fight. She looked up at the volcano and was horrified to see Heihachi walking down. "...No." She said quietly, tears running down her face. Not knowing why she ran up the hillside to meet Heihachi.

They both stopped when they met, Jun tried to speak but found that her mouth was too dry to even utter a word. "I'm sorry you had to be affected by this." Heihachi said, thought his eyes said otherwise, he then continued to walk.

Jun's eyes went wide as she saw something emerge from the volcano, a winged creature. Though she'd never seen it before she recognized it...Devil. Seeing the look on her face Heihachi turned to see what had caught her attention. Devil dove at him knocking him to the ground and causing him to hit his head, rendering him unconscious.

"Help me." The creature advanced toward Jun, who was too frightened to do anything. Devil attempted to touch her arm, Jun gasped and moved back. "Let me have your child." The creature said.

"Stay away from me." Jun said as she walked slowly backward.

"I need him to survive." Devil continued to advance.

"Taking control of Kazuya wasn't enough!" Jun yelled. "I will never let you possess my child!"

"Then I shall take him." Devil rushed at Jun but she moved out of the way and began to run down the hillside as fast as her legs could carry her. She started to move toward her car but Devil cut her off and she was forced to run in the opposite direction. She ran around the volcano until she was at the opposite side from where she had started. Still running she tripped over one of the many rocks scattered around. She fell to the ground and felt something cut her knee, it began to bleed freely; she realized it had been a long and particularly sharp piece of obsidian.

Before she could get up she felt Devil's hand close around her ankle. "I need him to survive." He said again.

With her free leg Jun kicked at his face forcing him back, then grabbed the piece of obsidian and launched at him sinking the rock deep within his chest. He screamed in pain. "Wench!" Devil said as he attempted to pull the rock out. "You will never be completely rid of me." He fell to his knees.

To Jun's amazement he began to dissolve...no...He began to transform. He changed into a purple light, it hovered over Jun a short moment before enveloping her body. She was nearly overcome by severe pain as she felt something evil penetrated her unborn child's soul, though she could feel that it was not whole. _Not whole? Why? _She wondered. The pain intensified and she fell to her knees, then as quickly as it had come the pain was gone along with the purple light.

"I'm sorry, my child." Jun said. "I'm sorry, Kazuya...I failed you. I failed you both." She covered her face with her hands and began to cry.

Lee could not remember ever being in such pain, it hurt to move or even breathe, but he knew that he had to continue; he had to find them before it was too late.

After convincing the paramedics to bandage his chest and practically forcing them to let him go he had gone to look for Kazuya. Spotting one of his bodyguards he had asked him about his whereabouts. Knowing Lee to be Kazuya's brother and the bodyguard himself being worried about his boss' fate, he gave Lee the paper he had found with directions to the volcano.

After what seemed to be an eternity Lee finally reached the it. He saw Kazuya's car and another that he didn't recognize, was it Heihachi's? With extreme difficulty Lee climbed out of his car, he saw Heihachi walking toward him. He noticed that he had cuts and bruises on his face and arms, he was also limping. Heihachi had reached him before he had even been able to take three steps. "Where is Kazuya?" Lee asked holding his chest.

With his head Heihachi motioned to the volcano. "In there." He said. "And I doubt he'll be coming out."

Lee stared in shock at his father. "...You...you killed him?"

"He deserved it." Heihachi said quietly. "...As do you. You betrayed me." He once again advanced toward Lee. "I took you in, gave you luxuries, a good education," His voice rose higher with every word he said. "I was going to make you the sole heir of my company and you betrayed me!" His voice grew quiet once more. "...Give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you into the volcano."

There was a short silence. "...I don't have one." Lee said, his head lowered and voice barely audible. "...All I ever wanted was to bring honor back to the Zaibatsu."

"Foolish boy." Heihachi's words dripped with hatred. "If I ever see you anywhere near any of my property...I will have you killed, and then I'll go after everyone you care about and everyone who you might care about." With that he spun on his heel and continued on his way.

Lee watched him until he disappeared then turned to the volcano...Kazuya lay there somewhere...he was never coming back...He would never see him again. Lee didn't know how to feel. He remembered as a child when his mother lay in the hospital bed...when the doctor had told him that she was dead. The pain he had felt was indescribable. It was a feeling of loss...She was never coming back...he would never see her again...he realized that he was alone in the world. He had then run out of the hospital, he knew what happened to children who didn't have parents, they were put in an orphanage...and there he was not willing to go. He ended up in the streets where he lived for nearly two years. After his mother's death he had thought about her day and night, to this day he kept the memories of all the wonderful times they'd had together.

A man who was by law his brother was now dead. He thought back to what their lives had been as children, as teenagers and as men. He tried to recall any good memories he had of his brother...he felt he owed it to him to at least try to find something...he could find nothing. He felt a strange sadness overtake him, not the same sort of sadness he had felt when he lost his mother; he was sadden to realize that he didn't have one good memory of his brother...not one. He was taken back to a conversation they'd had only days before. "No man is invincible, Kazuya." Lee said, he then stepped inside his car and glancing at his brother's grave one last time he drove away.

He had called her Anna. In a moment of vulnerability and desperation he had expressed his true feelings, he had wished _her_ to be by his side. Sayuri wiped a tear from her face. She was sitting on a bench by the airport's main entrance, the items Lee had asked for resting by her side. She looked at her wrist and began to study the diamond bracelet Lee had given her months earlier. Had he been thinking of Anna when he gave it to her? Did he buy it because he thought it was something that Anna would have liked? Did he think about Anna when he kissed her? When he touched her?

She looked across the vast room and saw a young couple holding hands, smiling they made their way to the long line for the ticket counter. They looked so happy...Had that ever been her and Lee? She looked at the bracelet again; she couldn't be upset at Lee, she didn't have the right. She felt fresh tears well up in her eyes. Who was she to say anything? Who was she to judge him after stooping so low as to cheat on him with his own brother? After hiding her discovery, practically conspiring against him? She deserved that and much more.

"Sayuri." She jumped at the sound of Lee's voice.

He looked almost as bad as she had seen him after the fight; his face bruised and bloodied, his clothes dirty and wrinkled. "Lee...what happened? Where were you?" She asked genuinely concerned.

"...Kazuya is dead." Lee held his chest. "The old man is back in control."

Sayuri stared at him for a moment not knowing what to say. Kazuya was dead? She slowly covered her mouth with her hand. "...Your...his father..." Lee nodded. Sayuri felt a bit lightheaded, she had just seen Kazuya a few hours earlier and now he was...

"I need my briefcase." Sayuri closed her eyes and took a deep breath then exhaled slowly, she felt as if she were about to faint. "Sayuri."

As she opened her eyes she found that she felt a bit better. "...Your briefcase..." She bent to pick it up.

"Open it." Inside she saw a change of clothes and some shoes, along with Lee's wallet and some documents. "Give me my wallet." She did as she was told. Lee opened it and extracted a credit card from it; he gave it to Sayuri. "Sayuri...are you willing to go to Hong Kong with me?"

"...What?" Go to Hong Kong, in China, a completely different country?

Lee put his right hand on the wall for support. "You heard me." He closed his eyes obviously in pain.

"...I...for how long?"

"Indefinite."

"Can't we think about this? We need to get you to a hospital." She was very worried about him; he was looking paler by the minute and obviously needed medical attention.

"Hong Kong has hospitals too!" She saw that he was rapidly becoming irritated. "Are you coming with me or not!"

"...I..." He needed her, who would take care of him once he arrived in Hong Kong? Who would make sure that he went to a hospital and was given proper attention? And now that the Zaibatsu was in Heihachi Mishima's control again she was unemployed, with Lee gone she would have nowhere to live. "...I..." She absentmindedly turned the credit card between her thumb and middle finger...She had betrayed him, the least she could do to make up for it was... "...I'll go."

"Go buy two tickets for the next flight and find me some pain medicine." Lee instructed. "I have to go get cleaned up." He said taking the briefcase.

As he walked to the men's room she realized that many people were staring at them, when they saw her looking they all turned away. She picked up the bags and went to the back of the line.

Two hours later they were on their way to Hong Kong. After taking some over-the-counter pain medicine Lee had felt slightly better and was now asleep. _Hong Kong, in **China**, I think I made a mistake_, Sayuri thought as she fell asleep.

"_Sayuri_..." The voice was that of a female, it was beautiful, comforting. "_Allow me become one with her_."

"_One with who_?" Sayuri heard herself ask, her voice sounded distant. She didn't know if she was still asleep, she tired to open her eyes but found that she couldn't, so she decided that it was all a dream.

"_I will protect her_..." The celestial voice spoke again. "_I will make certain that she is always safe. Do you accept_?"

Did she accept what? "..._I don't understand_."

"_I assure you there is no need for alarm. I will protect her if you permit me to become one with her. Do you accept_?" The voice asked again.

Sayuri felt so secure, so comforted by the sweet sound of the voice, she didn't fully understand, but she knew there was nothing to fear. "_I accept_."

"_Thank you_...Miss Yoshida." Sayuri felt someone's hand on her shoulder. "Miss Yoshida." She opened her eyes upon hearing her name and saw a young flight attendant standing by her. "Did you hear the announcement?"

"No."

"We will be landing in Hong Kong in a few minutes. Just as you ordered an ambulance is waiting to take Mr. Chaolan to a hospital."

"Thank you."

"Do you need anything else, Miss Yoshida?"

"Can you tell me the time?"

The young woman looked at her watch. "Eleven thirty-five."

"Thank you." The flight attendant bowed slightly, then continued down the isle. Sayuri turned to Lee, she might as well wake him up. _Become one with her_? That had been a very strange dream.


	9. Unwelcome Surprise

Chapter 8

(Unwelcome Surprise)

"_...I've lied to you  
The same way that I always do..."_

--Linkin Park (Pushing Me Away)

After spending three long hours in the hospital Sayuri was ready to go to sleep. It was almost four a.m. when the taxi left them at Lee's house in Hong Kong. It was in a very nice looking neighborhood, surrounded by large and expensive-looking modern houses; Lee's was no exception.

"I don't have my key." Lee said as he rang the doorbell.

"How are you able to afford this?" Sayuri asked.

Lee smiled. "Do you think I let Kazuya treat me the way he did for free? Without his 'help' I wouldn't have been able to start my business."

Sayuri smiled, he was so intelligent, taking money from Kazuya and he hadn't even suspected. _It serves him right_, she thought but immediately wondered if she should be thinking that about someone who had just died.

The door opened revealing a smiling, plump middle-aged Chinese woman. Her hair was tied back in a bun and she was dressed in a purple robe. She began to speak very rapidly in Chinese while bowing to Lee. She helped Sayuri with the bags and beckoned them inside, once they had stepped through the door she closed it behind her. The house was beautiful, the floor was covered in immaculate white carpet and a large oak bookcase stood one the opposite side of the door. A beige leather sofa and matching loveseat rested in the middle of the room, the sofa facing the door and the loveseat to its right. In front of the sofa was an elegant coffee table beyond which sat a large television set. The large windows were draped with beige silk curtains and tasteful paintings adorned the white walls. On the right side of the room was a closed door and on the far left she saw some stairs covered in the same white carpet.

After looking at the main room of her new home in awe, Sayuri noticed that Lee and the woman continued to speak in Chinese making her feel very out of place. It was worse than it had been at the hospital where she'd watched Lee and the doctor speak without understanding anything they had said. After leaving the hospital Lee had given her a very brief summary of what had been discussed. This was worse because she knew they were having a personal conversation.

"This is Sayuri." Lee finally spoke in Japanese. "Sayuri, this is Mei, the housekeeper. She speaks Japanese very well."

"Hello." The woman smiled as she bowed to Sayuri. "You a are very pretty girl."

"Thank you." Sayuri smiled politely.

Mei picked up the bags. "Come," She said as she walked toward the stairs. "I'll show you to your room."

Five weeks after arriving in China Sayuri sat in the living room trying to decipher the morning news. She sat on the edge of the sofa leaning forward and squinting at the television set as if it helped understand what she was hearing. Mei came into the room carrying a basket full of freshly laundered clothes.

"Good morning, Miss Sayuri." She said brightly.

"Morning." Sayuri said reaching for the cup resting on the coffee table.

"I'm glad they caught those delinquents." Mei commented as she set the basket down.

"What delinquents?" Sayuri asked turning to her.

"Haven't you heard?" The older woman began to fold the clothes.

Sayuri rolled her eyes. "I probably have, but not speaking Chinese would usually prevent one from understanding."

"Well," Mei began, ignoring her sarcasm. "There was a big drug bust downtown yesterday—That's the officer!" She excitedly pointed at the TV.

"I think he was at the tournament," Sayuri said. "But I don't remember his name.

"His name is Lei Wulong, if it wasn't for him the entire operation would have gone down the drain." Mei smiled as she stared at the TV. "That is an enormous accomplishment for someone so young...so handsome."

Sayuri sighed. "I sure wish they'd have some channels in Japanese."

"Why don't you ask Mr. Lee to hire a tutor for you so you can learn Chinese?"

"I don't see the need for it. I don't intend to live here forever." Sayuri stood up, as she did so she suddenly saw the room before her start to spin.

She felt Mei taking her arm and helping her back down. "Are you all right, Miss Sayuri?"

She closed her eyes and leaned back for a moment. "...Fine." She said softly as she opened her eyes again.

"You scared me!" Mei exclaimed. "I thought you were going to faint."

"I don't know what's wrong with me, that's the third time that's happened to me in the last few weeks."

Mei smiled brightly. "That might mean—"

"Don't even say it." Sayuri held up her hand. "It cannot be..._that_," She paused. "What if there's something wrong with me?" She looked up at Mei. "It could be my blood pressure. High blood pressure runs in my mother's side...that's probably what it is...But what if it's something worse?" She finished, looking a little anxious.

"Would you like me to take you to the doctor?" Mei smiled gently.

"...I don't know..."

"I know a Japanese doctor, his practice is not far from here. We could take a taxi."

"...O-okay." She stood up shakily. "Let me go get ready."

"I'm pregnant!" About two hours later, in Dr. Himora's office Sayuri could not believe what she was hearing.

"Congratulations." The middle-aged Japanese man smiled.

Sayuri closed her eyes and pressed her hand to the side of her face. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"What if you're wrong?" She asked hopefully.

"There is no way." The doctor assured her.

Sayuri sighed resignedly. "...How far along am I?"

"That I don't know. Let me go talk with my nurse and I will have her schedule you for a test that will determine that." He stood up. "Excuse me, I'll be right back." He exited closing the door softly behind him.

Sayuri knew that she should have expected that, all the symptoms had pointed to pregnancy, she just hadn't wanted to believe it. She didn't want to believe it now, she and Lee had never even talked about the possibility of having children or her becoming pregnant one day. Now it seemed it should have been an obvious topic to discuss.

"Good news." The doctor said coming back much sooner than she had expected. "My next patient cancelled, so if you have time we can do the test now."

"Might as well." She didn't have plans anyway.

"Well, Miss Yoshida," The doctor came back into the small room a few minutes after the test had been done. "I have the results."

"Yes?"

"You are seven weeks pregnant." He announced.

Sayuri felt her arms grow heavy and her mouth go dry. "...S-seven weeks?" She slowly shook her head. "That's not possible..."

"Yes, it is, the test is extremely accurate."

"...A-are you sure it's not six or eight weeks?" She sounded almost desperate. She remembered seven weeks prior when she was still employed at the Zaibatsu and Lee went on his business trip, that had been the time of her 'encounter' with Kazuya.

"It is quite impossible to be off by an entire week. We use the latest technology in this clinic."

Sayuri took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She felt sick, she didn't want to believe it, but she knew the doctor was telling the truth. _A fine time for birth control to fail._ Sayuri thought bitterly, she slowly stood from her chair. "Thank you doctor." She said as she made her way to the exit.

"Stop at the desk and ask my nurse to give you your next appointment." The doctor called after her.

Sayuri felt numb, never had she imagined that one day she would go through something like this. "Are you ready to go?" Mei called out once she saw Sayuri enter the waiting room.

"...Mei, will you please ask the nurse to give you my next appointment?"

"Of course." Mei smiled and walked toward the desk; she had been overjoyed when Sayuri had come out to inform her that there would soon be a baby in the house.

_At least one of us is happy_, Sayuri thought, so many things were running through her mind at that moment. What would Lee say when she told him? How would her family react? Would she even tell her family? They had been very upset when she told them that she was going to be living with a man that she wasn't married to. She could imagine the conversation that would take place once she went back to her parent's house. _Hi, mom, dad, do you remember when I called you to tell you that I had moved to China with my boyfriend? You were so angry with me for waiting two weeks to tell you that you didn't speak to me for days? I know that you're over it now so I came to tell you something that's even better. Yes, even better than the time I told you that I was living with him and I was not planning to get married and brought shame onto the entire family...Yes, I remember that you didn't speak to me for months and that you still haven't entirely forgiven me. Well, guess what? My boyfriend threw me out of his house because he found out that I was pregnant with his brother's child, by the way his brother is now dead...so, anyway, I'm back._

This time she was sure her father would disown her, and Lee would no doubt throw her out...Her face suddenly lit up as he had an idea. Kazuya was dead, that meant that she was the only other living person who knew what had happened between them. No one else knew...no one, so, if she neglected to mention that the child was not Lee's, who would say anything different? Who would even suspect? No one...She would never tell, it would be a secret that she would keep until the day she died.

After an extremely tiring day at work Lee finally reached his house. He entered, hung his jacket in the closet then proceeded to walk into the living room and drop his keys on the coffee table. Sitting on the sofa he turned on the television set, lit one of his menthol cigarettes and began to smoke.

"Hi."

Lee turned to see Sayuri coming out of the kitchen. "How was your day?" She asked as she sat by him.

"Just a day." He continued to smoke as he used the remote control to flip through the channels.

"You know..." Lee turned to look at her. "...Smoking is bad for you..." He looked strangely at her, never had she commented on his habit before. "...And other people too." She finished.

He settled on a news channel. "...Why do you say that?" He noticed that she looked a little nervous.

"...Oh...you know...just..." She turned away and began examining random objects in the room with her gaze.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah, fine. I went to the doctor today." She took off her hair tie and absentmindedly began to play with it.

"Is everything all right?" He asked concerned.

"He said I was fine, and that I'm..." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "...I'm...uh...pregnant."

The TV was the only sound in the house as Lee stared at his girlfriend in disbelief. She had never been the joking type, but Lee studied her face for any signs of it just in case. He found none. "...You're serious, aren't you?" He finally said as he put his cigarette on the ashtray.

"...Yes." Sayuri said quietly.

That was not something that he wanted to hear. He leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes. "I really don't need this."

"Well thank you for your support!" Sayuri stood up.

Lee sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Do you think I wanted this!"

Lee took her hand. "I said I was sorry." She sat down again. "It's just that I've never considered having children. Hell, I don't even know if I like children."

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Tears began to roll down her cheeks. "I hope you're not thinking that I'm going to get rid of it."

"I never said that! I'm just...surprised and...I don't know." He sighed again.

"And how do you think I feel?" She crossed her arms and looked away.

_As if my life wasn't stressful enough_, he knew there was nothing to do but accept it. They couldn't change the past. "How far along are you?"

"...Eight weeks." She said, her face still turned away.

"Seven more months then." She nodded. "...Well, what's done is done. We'll work it out." He reached out and pulled her toward him then put his arm around her.

Sayuri laid her head on his shoulder. "...Lee?" She spoke after a few seconds.

"What is it?"

"Will you put out your cigarette?" Lee took a deep breath and did as she asked. He began to realize that bringing her to China had been a mistake.


	10. Lin Yao

Chapter 9

(Lin Yao)

"_We stumble in a tangled web,_

_Decaying friendships almost dead_

_And hide behind a mask of lies..."_

--Savage Garden (A Thousand Words)

"There is nothing to do in this house." A nearly nine month pregnant Sayuri said as she descended the stairs. Lee didn't even bother to look up, he knew where that comment would lead. It had been nearly seven months since he'd learned that he was going to become a father; something that he was not looking forward to.

"There is a world outside." He said dryly.

"What good does that do me?"

Lee sighed. "I don't know, Sayuri."

She began to pace back and forth in front of him blocking his view of the TV. "You know I can't go out, not one damn store clerk speaks Japanese."

Lee ran his fingers through his platinum hair. "You know, instead of waiting for the entire Chinese population to learn Japanese maybe _you_ could learn Chinese. I've told you many times that I can hire you a tutor to help you learn."

Sayuri stopped her pacing. "And you think that will solve everything?"

"Whatever." Lee extracted a cigarette from the pack resting by him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sayuri placed her right hand on her hip.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Why do you smoke if you know it's bad for the baby?"

"Because it's the only damn thing that gives me peace!" Lee's voice began to rise. "And if you're so concerned maybe you should leave the room."

"I will not leave the room." Sayuri said firmly.

Lee stood up. "Why am I not surprised?" He took his car keys from the coffee table and made his way to the door.

"Fine!" Sayuri yelled. "Go to hell!"

Lee stopped as he opened the door and turned to face her. "I _am_ in Hell." He spun on his heel and slammed the door behind him. A few moments later Sayuri heard his car leave the driveway.

She felt a tear slide down her face, but she quickly wiped it away._ He's right_, she thought, _this **is** Hell_. She turned off the TV and then made her way upstairs. She entered the bathroom, looked at herself in the mirror and began to brush her hair, though it was already perfectly brushed.

As she brushed she felt something that she had been expecting for a few days. "Mei!" She yelled. "Come quick!"

A few seconds later Mei had arrived at the bathroom door looking quite out of breath. "What is it Miss Sayuri?" She asked concerned.

"I think my water broke." Her voice sounded surprisingly shaky.

"Oh!" Mei clapped her hands in delight. "I'll go call a taxi, and then I'll call Mr. Lee." Mei dashed down the stairs. While she made the calls Sayuri got ready to go. "Mr. Lee forgot his cell phone!" An anxious Mei said as she helped Sayuri down the stairs.

"He has to be back sometime." Sayuri said. "We'll just keep calling home when we get to the hospital." As Sayuri walked toward the door she couldn't remember ever feeling so nervous.

"I have to go." Lee put on his jacket and made his way toward the door. A pretty, blond woman in her late twenties wearing a lacy pink nightgown stood from her bed and followed after him.

"Wait, Lee." He stopped just as he was about to turn the doorknob. "Here." Said the woman as she handed him a card. "This is my address in Paris," Though she spoke in English her French accent was unmistakable. "Look me up if you're ever in town."

He looked at the card then put it in his shirt pocket. "I'll do that." He smiled then opened the door.

"Bye." She said as she closed it softly behind him.

Lee did not want to go home, he knew very well what waited for him there. In a sense he deserved it, he had been gone the entire night and had forgotten to even bring his cell phone with him. However, he was glad to have forgotten his phone that way he wouldn't have Sayuri bothering him and she wouldn't discover that he had spent the night with a French tourist.

At about seven a.m. he arrived at his house, as he entered he noticed that it was unusually quiet. Upon further inspection he found that neither Sayuri nor Mei were home, something that struck him as odd for being so early in the morning. As he was about to go into the kitchen and make himself some coffee the phone rang. When he answered it he was surprised to hear Mei's voice.

"Mr. Lee?"

"Yes?"

"We are at the hospital, Miss Sayuri had the baby."

"Oh." Was all he could think to say. "I'll be there as soon as I can." He said hanging up, a feeling of uneasiness began to creep inside him.

Sayuri looked in wonder at the little child resting in her arms. Mei had told her that she'd finally reached Lee, what would he say when he met the child? What would he feel? Would he discover that it wasn't his baby? As those questions raced through her mind she heard the door open softly, a moment later Lee emerged.

"Is everything all right?" He asked as he advanced toward the bed.

"Yes, everything went well." She noticed that he looked uncomfortable.

"Good..." He stopped by the bed. "...What is it?"

"A girl, she was born a little after midnight."

"Oh."

"Here," Sayuri held the baby in front of him. "You can hold her if you want."

"I've never held a child before," Lee said looking extremely unsure. "I don't even think I've ever seen one this small."

"Just try it." Sayuri insisted. "If you don't feel comfortable just give her back to me."

"...All right." He sat on the bed and Sayuri put the baby in his arms. As soon as he looked into her little face Sayuri saw something inside him change, she could tell by the expression on his face and the look in his eyes. "She's so tiny." A faint smile crossed his features as he saw her move her arms slightly. "What's her name?" He asked never taking his eyes off her.

"Whatever you want it to be." Sayuri said, she had decided that if he was to go through his entire life raising a child that was not his, the least she could do was let him pick the name.

"Really?" He looked at Sayuri; she nodded. He thought for a moment as he looked at the child again. "...Lin Yao." He said.

_A Chinese name_, Sayuri mentally rolled her eyes, she should have seen that coming. "What does it mean?"

"Beautiful jade treasure."

"That's nice," Sayuri smiled. "Why did you choose that?"

Lee paused for a moment. "...It was my mother's name." Sayuri was surprised to hear this; he had never mentioned anything about his life before he was adopted by Heihachi. The baby began to cry, before Sayuri could say anything Lee stood up and began to rock her gently, slowly she stopped crying again. Lee looked happier than Sayuri had ever seen him, perhaps everything would work out after all.

After the birth of Lin Yao the months had passed incredibly fast. Though Lee had hoped that her birth would help his relationship with Sayuri everything between them was now worse. Sayuri insisted almost every day on moving back to Japan; that was something that Lee was not willing to do for he still remembered Heihachi's threat. He had his daughter to think about now, she was his world and he was not willing to risk her just to fulfill Sayuri's desire to go back.

As he stepped off the stairs and into the living room he saw a very small person running at him, once she reached him the little girl wrapped her small arms around his leg. "How is the most beautiful woman in the world this morning?" He asked as he picked her up. She responded with a happy smile, Lee couldn't help doing the same as he looked at her. It was apparent that when she grew up she would look almost exactly like her mother, as she had the same features, but unlike her mother Lee saw no fault in Lin Yao.

"Must you always speak to her in Chinese?" Sayuri asked as she approached them. They both knew that the little girl's limited vocabulary was mostly in Chinese thanks to Lee, Mei and the television set.

"Mommy seems upset this morning." He said looking at his daughter.

"Lee..." Sayuri put her right hand on her hip.

"That was English," Lee said. "Not Chinese."

"You know I don't like it when you talk to her in another language, I feel like you're conspiring against me." Sayuri said angrily.

"You think I'm conspiring against you with a sixteen-month-old?"

"It wouldn't surprise me if you were."

"I want my daughter to understand what the teacher says on her first day of school. And I know that if I start now she's going to grow up knowing multiple languages and attending the finest schools."

"Just like you I suppose?"

"Basically."

"And unlike me."

"Right."

"Come here." She said snatching the child from his arms; Lin began to cry.

"Don't take your shortcomings out on her!"

"I'm taking her with me." Sayuri said as she grabbed her purse and keys.

"Where are you going?" Lee asked following after them.

"Shopping, we'll be back later."

"But it's Saturday," He protested. "I always take her out on Saturday."

"You can have her after I come back." She said opening the car door and putting the child in the car seat.

Lee would have done more to stop them, but he didn't for his daughter's welfare. At that moment he wished that Sayuri would disappear from the planet. "As if I'd be so lucky." He scoffed. He resignedly went back inside, with Mei off for the day he found himself alone in the house.

For about thirty minutes he worked on some documents that he'd brought from the office, but he found that it was difficult to focus. He had to do something, he couldn't stay in that hell forever...he couldn't let his daughter stay in that hell forever. His thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. _That better not be a salesman, for his own sake_, Lee thought as he made his way to the door.

He couldn't have been more surprised as he opened it. A pair of blue eyes peered at him from the top of designer sunglasses. "Hi, Lee."

"...What are you doing here?"

"I was hoping for an 'I missed you.'" Anna Williams smiled as she waited for his response.

"...I never expected to see you here."

"May I come in?" Lee moved aside to let her through. She looked even more beautiful than the last time he had seen her; she wore a red cashmere sweater accompanied by knee-length black skirt and black high-heeled boots. She removed her sunglasses as she stepped inside then began to look around. "I like your house."

"How did you find me?" Lee questioned as he closed the door.

"It wasn't easy, but it's all boring details so I doubt that it matters."

"You haven't told me what you're doing here."

Anna turned to him and began to approach. "I came to see you, of course."

"Why?"

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "...Do you have to ask?" He felt her lips touching his. "I've never stopped thinking about you..." She uttered softly.

As they kissed he felt the world around him disappear. He was suddenly back in time, back when everything had been perfect between them. The only thing that mattered in that moment was her, the smell of her hair, the beating of her heart against his chest; the warmth of her body...only her...He never wanted to let her go. He broke the kiss to look at her angelic face. "...I missed you..." She said and he knew that she was telling the truth. As he looked into her eyes he realized how much he had longed for her, at that moment he wanted nothing more than to be with her. He kissed her again, in the back of his mind he knew that this was not the time or the place to be giving in to his desires...but in that instant nothing else mattered.

As Lee sat on the couch watching Anna touch up her makeup he realized that he had made a terrible mistake, he had been trying to replace Anna with Sayuri since the beginning. All this time he had been trying to recreate what he'd once had with Anna. That was why he had moved the relationship so fast, he had tried to bring it to that level, he had tried to fill the emptiness that she had left. That was why he had felt so unhappy with her, subconsciously he had tried to have the same feelings for Sayuri that he had for Anna; that was why it would never work.

He noticed Anna staring at him. "What?" He asked lamely.

She bit her lower lip and began to examine her nails. "...I...um...There is a reason why I came..."

He mentally kicked himself for actually believing that she had traveled all the way to Hong Kong just to see him. "Why is that?" He asked masking his surprise.

"My sister," Anna began. "Has volunteered to undergo an experiment that is being supervised by Dr. Boskonovitch, it's called the 'Cold Sleep'. It's a sort of freezing process, once she goes through with it, it will be as if Nina were frozen in time, ten or even twenty years will go by and she will remain young. When she wakes up it will be as if only a moment has passed."

Lee stared with a bemused expression. "...What does this have to do with coming to see me?"

"I have decided to go through it with her...and I want you to come with me."

"...You want...you're going to do it?" She nodded. "Has it been done before?"

"No."

"So basically you want us to be his guinea pigs."

"It's not like that—"

"Then how is it? What makes you think that something won't go wrong? And how can you even think of doing something like that?"

Anna thought for a moment. "...I know that nothing will go wrong, and I want to be with my sister...but I also want to be with you."

That was probably the craziest thing he had ever heard. A guinea pig for something of that magnitude..._Did she just say_... "You want to be with your sister?"

Anna sighed. "I know we don't get along, but I'll miss her; who am I going to fight with when she's gone? There is also the fact that I will continue to age as she retains her youth, and it wouldn't be fair."

Lee realized that her main driving force was more than likely the latter. "...I can't do it."

A look of disappointment settled on Anna's pretty features. "...Why? This is a great opportunity for you! Imagine waking up in twenty years looking and feeling as young as you do now! You'll be able to enjoy all the new technology, you would even be able to take over the Zaibatsu!"

"As much as I want to be with you and as much as I would like to take over the Zaibatsu, I can't."

"Why?" She asked again, a pleading look in her eyes.

"My daughter."

"Your what?" She asked confused.

"I have a daughter, I can't just abandon her."

Anna closed her eyes, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. There was a long silence. He couldn't afford to lose Lin, to miss out on her growing up; and his business was doing extremely well he couldn't just let it all go.

Anna finally spoke. "...Your answer is no then." Lee nodded. "I guess I better go." She said picking up her purse.

"...I'm sorry." He truly was, he had found happiness with her for a brief moment; it was now gone as quickly as it had come.

They embraced one another. "...I guess we just weren't meant to be." Anna said as a tear slid down her face. Lee wiped her tear away and kissed her softly, he knew it was the last time he would ever have her in his arms.

"Why am I not surprised?" They both turned at the sound of Sayuri's voice.

Anna quickly stepped away from him. "Good bye." She uttered softly then made her way out the door.

He tried to come up with an excuse, any excuse, but he realized that there was no way to cover that up. Sayuri's wore a strange expression, she looked more weary than upset. Without saying a word she made her way upstairs holding the sleeping child in her arms. Lee made his way to his office and once there locked the door. He knew there would be hell to pay later.

Nearly two hours had passed when Lee heard a soft knock on his door. He stood up and opened it to see Sayuri standing in front of him holding their daughter in her arms. He noticed that they were both dressed as if to go out. "...What happened today," Sayuri said. "Was only as much as I'm willing to take from you. I know that you've cheated on me numerous times, but to bring that woman here, the place where my daughter lives...that is just too much." What could he say? He knew she was right. "That is why I came to tell you that I'm going back to Japan...And I'm taking her with me."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "...You can't do that."

Sayuri turned and headed toward the exit, the little girl squirming in her arms. "There is a taxi waiting for us outside."

"Sayuri, wait!" He said following after them. "You can't just take her!"

"You are welcome to visit her any time." Lin stretched her small arms trying to reach the man she had known as her father, but Sayuri stepped back, not willing to give her up.

"Please don't take my daughter." Lee felt desperate, the only person that mattered in his life was being taken away.

"She's not..." Sayuri closed her eyes as tears began to stream down her face. "...She's not..."

"What?"

There was a short silence. "...She's not just _your_ daughter, she's mine too." With that she opened the car door and stepped inside, Lin began to cry. Sayuri closed the door and in broken Chinese asked the driver to go.

For a moment Lee stood there watching as the taxi drove away then went back inside the house determined to get his daughter back.

After a grueling flight Sayuri finally reached Japan, why she hadn't done that sooner she didn't know. She called her parents letting them know that she was coming to visit and to show them their granddaughter. They had seemed excited. After the phone call she went to rent a car, her home town was near the city of Osaka, only about forty-five minutes away from Osaka Airport.

It was twelve thirty a.m. After driving for about fifteen minutes Sayuri realized that it would have been a good idea to spend the night at a hotel. It was pouring rain; that combined with the darkness of the night made for very limited visibility. She noticed that there were no cars in front of her and so far she had only seen one car going into the city. Save for a pair of headlights that she saw very far behind her she was the only one on the road. _I guess not very many people want to drive in this weather._

In the back seat she heard Lin begin to stir, she had woken up. Hoping that she would go back to sleep she said nothing, but a few seconds later the child begin to cry. "It's okay, we'll be there soon." She called out, but that didn't seem to stop her. "Do you want your juice?" Sayuri asked as she felt for the toddler's cup on the passenger seat and accidentally knocked it down with her hand. "Damn." She muttered as she bent to reach it.

All it took was a split second for her to lose control of the vehicle...one split second. She felt the wheel slip from her hand as she hit a large puddle on the road, the car was headed directly for a tree on the opposite side. Sayuri stepped on the break, but it was too late.

"My baby..." Her words were barely audible.

_I will protect her..._ It was the same voice she'd heard on the plane almost two years prior, it made her feel at peace, her worries quickly began to dissipate. _I will make certain that she is safe..._

"...I believe you..." The car hit the tree head-on...in one split second a woman's soul drifted away from this world and a child was left behind...the weight of an uncertain future balancing on her small shoulders.


	11. Loss

Chapter 10

(Loss)

"_...God I know I'm just a dot in this world_

_Have you forgot about me?_

_Whatever life brings_

_I've been through everything_

_And now I'm on my knees..."_

--Creed (Don't Stop Dancing)

Mariko Takahashi drove recklessly through the rain. The bridge was not far now, _soon all my suffering will end. _Everyone told her the same thing '_you still have a full life ahead of you_', '_there is so much to be grateful for_'. But what did they know? They had no idea how much she was suffering...no one in the physical world could possibly know. Very few people had suffered the losses that she had. All she had left in the world was her husband, but he didn't understand her suffering either, he was one of _those_ people telling her that there was much to live for, but _he_ of all people should have known better than to say such a thing.

All the stress was beginning to take its toll on her, she saw it in her physical appearance. She had gained weight and her hair was almost completely gray, though she was only thirty-five years old she looked at least ten years older. She felt older.

Her morbid thoughts were interrupted when she saw the car in front of her spin out of control and finally collide with a tree. When she reached the car she stopped behind it, perhaps doing a good deed before she died would ensure her welcome into Heaven. She opened the glove compartment and extracted a flashlight.

Mariko stepped out into the pouring rain and made her way to the driver's door. Finding it impossible to open she then moved to the passenger door. After opening it she turned the flashlight on the person behind the wheel. Taking off one of her gloves she felt for a pulse, but found no sign of it. She proceeded to put her glove back on. "How I envy you." She said, at the sound of her voice she heard a child begin to cry. She quickly turned the flashlight to the back and was amazed to see a toddler on a car seat seemingly uninjured.

She quickly ran to the back door and looked at the child. "...Katsue..." She said. "...My little Katsue!" She shakily unbuckled the child from her seat. "We have to leave now." She said taking her in her arms. A few seconds later she drove away.

About thirty minutes later Mariko finally reached the house that she shared with her husband Hogai. It was a small home near the mountains away from the nearby cities and towns. They had been living there for about six months; she knew that had she not been so overwhelmed with everything that was happening in her life, she would have enjoyed those six months.

A skinny Japanese man who looked to be in his late thirties opened the door. "Where were you?"

"I went for a drive." Mariko said stepping inside.

"What are you doing with that child!" Hogai asked. "Oh, Buddha...Mariko, what did you do?" He followed her as she walked through the small house.

"She saved me." Mariko entered the small bedroom and lovingly placed the sleeping child on the bed.

"What do you mean she saved you?"

"...I was about to drive off the bridge." She simply stated.

"Not again! Mariko if you feel that you—"

"I was really going to do it..." She began to stroke the child's hair. "...Then I saw the car in front of me crash into a tree, so I stopped to help." She turned to look at him, her eyes welling up with tears. "Her mother was dead, and she was in the back, uninjured...it was a miracle." She said dreamily looking at the sleeping toddler as the tears began to slide down her cheeks.

"You took her! Do you know how serious this is! You could be charged with kidnapping!" Hogai said exasperated.

Her face took on a look of fury. "She needs me," Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I told you her mother is _dead_."

"How are you sure that that person you saw was her mother! And even if she was, what about the father and the rest of her family?"

"She looks to be about a year and a half." Mariko said ignoring him. "That's the same age that our little Katsue would be." She lovingly looked at the child.

"...Mariko..." Hogai ran his fingers through his thinning hair. "...Katsue is gone, _she_ is not Katsue...She belongs to someone else."

"No, she doesn't!" Mariko turned to face him. "Buddha sent her to us! She is our gift after losing our daughter to that horrible disease!"

"We have to take her back." He said gently.

Mariko looked him in the eye. "If you take her away, I swear on my daughter's grave that I will kill myself." She threatened. "I've tried before, you know I'll do it." She finished calmly.

Hogai sighed in defeat. He knew she was telling the truth, he had come so close to losing her, he could not bear to think what life without his wife would be; he loved her. Living without his daughter was difficult enough, he knew he wouldn't be able to live without Mariko. Perhaps Buddha _had_ sent that little girl as a gift to them. "...Very well..." Mariko smiled at him. "But we can't take her into town or talk about her to anyone for a while. There might be people looking for her."

"I won't, I promise." She said her expression almost that of a seven-year-old being given a puppy for the first time. "What should we call her?" She asked.

"You decide."

"We could call her Katsue."

Hogai tensed. "No. Katsue is gone."

"But it'll be the same as when we had Katsue." She persisted.

"Mariko, we both know that is very wrong."

"...I suppose." She thought for a moment. "...Amaya." She said. "That was my second choice for a name after Katsue was born."

"Very well."

Mariko looked at her new daughter. "Amaya Takahashi." She smiled. "I kind of like that."

"So then we're seeing an overall four percent increase?" Lee tapped his pen on the paper resting on his desk, then moved his gaze to the man sitting in front of him.

"Yes, sir."

"Not bad." Lee leaned back on his chair, as he did so his phone began to ring. "Yes, Yi Min?" He answered after only one ring.

"_I'm transferring a call, sir." _His secretary said_. "It's long distance, from Japan."_

"Send it through." He turned to his accountant. "That's all I need for now." The man stood up, bowed slightly and exited.

"_Is this Mr. Chaolan?" _Lee was surprised to hear the voice of an older woman, he had been expecting to hear Sayuri.

"Yes."

"_This is Sayuri's mother." _Lee rolled his eyes, the last thing he wanted to hear was the rambling of her mother.

"How can I help you?"

The woman hesitated. _"...I called you because you need to know, and it is best that you learn it from me."_

"Know what?" He was beginning to feel impatient.

"_...There was an accident...Sayuri's dead." _He heard her voice crack as she said the last two words.

_That can't be_, he thought. "...But..." He didn't know what to say, how to react. "...I...She was with me less than a day..." His blood suddenly ran cold. "My daughter," He stood up. "What about my daughter?"

"_We can't find her." _The voice on the other end said.

"...What?" He looked down at his free hand and noticed that it was shaking.

"_The police has looked everywhere, but there is no sign of her."_

"I'll be there in a few hours. I'm going to Japan right now."

A few hours later Lee stood in one of the offices of the Osaka Police Department. "I assure you, Mr. Chaolan that we are doing everything possible to find her."

"Well obviously you need to do more!" Lee noticed that the police chief was becoming irritated, but he didn't care, all he wanted to do was find his daughter. "It is obvious that someone manually took her out of the car, she couldn't have just _vanished_."

"Wouldn't surprise me if she had..." The officer looked disdainfully at Lee. "I've heard about some of the things that happen with _you_ people."

"What do you mean by that?" Lee put his hands on the chief's desk.

"I mean you Mishimas." He said looking Lee in the eye. "I've heard about some of the oddball things that you do. Your brother mysteriously _vanished_ at the end of the last tournament, didn't he?"

"I am _not_ a Mishima." Lee said in a voice that was deadly calm. "Whatever happened or happens in that family, or what's left of it, is none of my concern and has _nothing_ to do with my daughter's disappearance."

The man shrugged. "If you say so, but I still don't like you people. But don't worry, my feelings will not interfere with my job. An innocent child is at stake and I will do all I can to have her back safely." He stood up and went to open the door. "Now, if you'll excuse me..." He motioned Lee out. "I have to make sure your daughter is found." Not feeling at all reassured Lee left the office.

"Oh, Mr. Lee I'm going to miss this house so much." Mei said as she walked toward the door carrying a suitcase.

Nearly a year had passed since Lin's disappearance, and though Lee had done everything that was humanly possible to find her he had been unsuccessful. He couldn't blame the police, he knew that they had tried, everyone had. He had offered rewards, it had been on the national and international news for months, but nothing had helped.

He stood leaning by the door, smoking one of his cigarettes. "...Did I ever tell about my childhood?" He asked.

Mei put down her suitcase. "No, Mr. Lee."

"My mother and I were very poor," Lee began as he exhaled forming a small cloud of smoke that quickly dissipated. "We didn't have any other family, so everything always fell on her...But we were happy..._I_ was happy. When I was about nine years old she fell ill, I don't know what she had, she never told me..." He smiled slightly. "...She didn't want me to worry. A short while later she died...the only person I had in the entire world was gone." He was silent for a moment. "...After that I ended up living in the streets...There is only one person I would wish that on...The one who _rescued_ me..." He began to pace slowly. "I promised myself that I would never let that happen to my daughter...I was going to give her the best of _everything_...But, where is she now? Who is she with?" He slowly shook his head.

Mei wiped tears from her eyes. "...All we can do is pray. Pray that she is with good people."

"Pray?" Lee scoffed. "Praying has never gotten me anywhere. I prayed for my mother to get better, I prayed for my brother to like me, I prayed to win the tournament and I prayed begging to find my daughter...What good has any of that done?"

They were both startled by the sound of a car horn. "My taxi is here." Mei said. "Will you go back to Japan?" She asked. "Or are you planning to stay in Hong Kong?"

"Neither." Lee said taking out another cigarette. "I'm moving to the Bahamas, I've transferred my business there."

Mei picked up her suitcase and opened the door. "I hope you make a good life for yourself, Mr. Lee. And please don't lose your faith, I know that your prayers weren't answered but they will be one day...at least some of them. It might be today or tomorrow, maybe in twenty years, but I am sure that one day, Buddha will listen." Giving him a reassuring smile she walked out the door.

"So my prayers might be answered in twenty years." Lee stepped outside and gave one last look inside his house before closing the door. "Better late than never, I suppose." He climbed inside his silver Porsche and drove toward his new life.


	12. A New Generation

Chapter 11

(A New Generation)

"_...You keep moving on_

_And the years go by so fast_

_Wonder how I ever made it through..."_

--Savage Garden (Two Beds and a Coffee Machine)

_Time is an unmerciful foe, it takes away one's youth and health...it takes away one's dreams. One day I looked in the mirror and realized that I was no longer thirty years old...I found myself alone. Time is the only one to blame. I have also been told that time can be a friend...What do those people know? They have not suffered as I have...They tell me that time softens the pain, that it heals the wounds...But even if they are correct, they are not completely so...It may heal wounds, but it leaves scars...scars that never fade...scars that can never be forgotten... _

"That is so sad." The young woman closed the book and looked at the clock on the wall, it read nine fifty-five p.m. "Two more hours." She sighed as she put the book on a shelf to her right. She was working the evening shift in a cheap motel near some of the 'bad streets' in Kobe, Japan. Luckily she was never alone. The owner of the motel was always in the next room, since he was her father's friend and a well-respected martial arts master she always felt secure.

She always hated going to work, today, however was a different story. It was her last day, as of tomorrow she would begin her modeling career. People had always told her that someone as beautiful as she could do something much better than work at a motel and she was about to do just that. She couldn't wait to see herself on the cover of fashion magazines all over the country.

She turned her eyes to the stairs leading from the rooms and into the lobby when she heard someone coming down. She saw a red-haired Korean man who looked about her age walk down. He had a navy-blue bag slung over his right shoulder and wore a black hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. She thought him to be very attractive. As she watched him she noticed that he was holding something in his right hand..._a cigarette_. This irked her completely; she hated it when people ignored the no smoking signs.

"Excuse me, sir," She said politely as he approached the counter. "It is not permitted to smoke in the lobby."

He continued to smoke. "I don't speak Japanese." He said in Korean.

He was in luck, not only was she one of the most beautiful women in Japan, but she was intelligent to boot. "This room is nonsmoking." She said in perfect Korean, she smiled a self-satisfied smile.

The man deposited his room key on the counter and looked at her. "It's smoking now." He said as he exhaled then proceeded to walk onto the street.

"Asshole." She muttered as she saw him leave. She couldn't wait to start her modeling job.

Hwoarang stepped out of the motel and onto the lamp-lit street. He tossed what was left of his cigarette to the sidewalk and crushed it with the heel of his tennis shoe. At the same time a middle-aged man and a trashy looking woman who looked to be about half his age walked into the motel. Across the street was an adult video store, people walked in and out of it every few minutes, some wearing a hoods or hats that covered most of their faces. He knew there were more than just adult videos being sold there. Giving one look to the liquor store next to the motel, he turned left and began to walk. The last bus for Tokyo was departing at eleven thirty, that meant he had less than an hour and a half to get some cash.

He turned right on the street where the guy from the bar had told him the night before, he noticed that the more he walked in that direction the less the streetlights seemed to shine. A few more turns and shabby-looking buildings later he spotted the 'abandoned' warehouse where he had told him some 'wicked street fights' took place. There didn't seem to be anyone around.

Once he reached the warehouse he hid his bag under a wooden crate. Knowing that there would be someone guarding the door he decided to take a different route. On the far end he saw a window, he pushed one of the crates against the wall, this enabled him to go through the window and enter without being seen.

It was loud and brightly lit inside, he saw about fifty or forty people gathered around watching _something_, a fight, no doubt. Most of the warehouse occupants were male and as far as he could see they were all Japanese. He casually made his way to the crowd; no one seemed to notice him.

"Hey!" He yelled, everyone suddenly went quiet and turned to look at him. "I want..." Hwoarang searched his mind for the word, but it just wouldn't come...he had forgotten the word for 'fight' in Japanese. He stood there for about one second feeling a little less than intelligent. "Does anyone speak Korean?" He asked in his native language...no response. "...Damn." He muttered. He tried something different. "Does anyone speak English?"

"I do." A strikingly beautiful Japanese woman took a step forward. She looked to be about his age, which was twenty-three; she had a near perfect build and the outfit to compliment it. She wore hot pink leather pants and a sleeveless black top that revealed a generous amount of cleavage. Her dark hair was ear-length, about an inch shorter than his, and was adorned with pink streaks that matched her pants.

He was speechless as he looked at her, but then realized that he must have looked like a fool staring at her like that. "...Uh...You speak English?" He asked lamely.

"Yeah, and so does Bobby." She pointed to a tall blond man in his mid twenties who looked to be American, why he hadn't seen him before, Hwoarang didn't know. "What do you want?" The girl asked.

"I want to fight."

"Do you?"

He was quickly becoming impatient, if he didn't hurry he'd miss the bus. "Look, sweetheart, just tell them that I want to fight, okay?"

"You are looking to fight for money, I assume." She said ignoring his request.

"Duh." He really didn't feel like answering her questions.

"How much?"

"Listen, princess, that's not your concern, just tell them that I want to fight."

She stared daggers into him then turned to the group and spoke, apparently communicating to them what he'd just said. "They want to know," She said turning back to him. "Who you want to fight."

"Tell me who's your best man and I'll fight him." She stood smirking at him as Bobby translated to the group, to Hwoarang's dismay they all began to laugh.

"What the hell are they laughing about?" He asked, the girl shrugged.

"Yo," Bobby said. "They want to know if you're interested in fighting the reigning champion."

"Are they laughing 'cause they think I can't take him?" Hwoarang asked feeling irritated.

"Something like that." The girl smiled.

"I can take him, there's no question about it."

"Okay then." She said.

"Well..." Hwoarang looked around. "Where is he? It's not the Bobby guy, is it?"

Bobby laughed. "It ain't me."

"Well!" The young woman took a step forward and bowed to him. Hwoarang rolled his eyes. "You have _got_ to be kidding."

"Anyway, _sweetheart_," She said. "As I asked before, how much?"

"I don't want to fight you,_ baby_." Hwoarang stepped toward her.

"Is it because I'm a woman?" She crossed her arms looking quite offended.

"No. I've fought girls before, but you're just _so_ damn cute, and if we fight you're going to mess up your pretty hair." She did not look amused...he was loving it. "When I've beaten you you'll start to cry, your mascara will run and you won't look so nice anymore."

"I'm touched by your concern." She said sarcastically. "How much?" She asked again.

"One hundred, eighty thousand yen."

She laughed. "That's all?"

Hwoarang clenched his fists; he really didn't like her. "If I had _more_, I'd bet _more_."

"Maybe you're just afraid to lose." She taunted.

"Whatever." He said dismissively. "Why do you want more anyway," He smirked. "Are you saving up for a boob job?"

Her smile suddenly faded. Everyone in the room was laughing, though the reaction was a little delayed because Bobby had to translate. "You're going to pay for that one." She said, her voice taking on a dangerous tone. She turned to the group and said something in Japanese, one of the men brought her a basket that had a rope tied to it.

"What the hell is that?" Hwoarang asked.

"You put your money in it," She reached into her very tight front pocket and pulled out a roll of bills, counted them then deposited about half into the basket. "Like so."

"I'm not putting my money in there." He knew better than to trust them.

"Relax, genius." She rolled her eyes. "See the rope?" She held it up. "The basket is going to hang over our heads, like a piñata. When the fight's over the winner takes the money. Unless you trust one of those guys to hold it for you?" Hwoarang pulled the money out of his pocket and put it in the basket. Though he had never seen anything quite so_ cheesy _there was less of a risk that he wouldn't get his money after he won.

"Can I know my opponent's name?" Hwoarang asked.

"As if."

"Come on, I've never fought anyone without knowing their name." He insisted.

"Fine." She sighed. "No one here knows my name, but they call me Fallen Angel."

"Whoa," He laughed. "How..._original_."

She placed her right hand on her hip. "I suppose yours is much better."

"Blood Talon."

She rolled her eyes. "Scary." She snapped her fingers and everyone moved out of the way leaving them in the middle of a circle, the basked dangling a few feet above their heads. "Shall we begin?"

"The sooner, the better." He knew it wouldn't take more than two minutes. The fact that she was female had nothing to do with his assumption, he had learned not to underestimate women, but this one didn't look particularly tough. She did a short kata just before taking her fighting stance, both of which were rather sloppy. _If she's the reigning champion, what does that say about the others? _The kata had told him that Karate was her 'expertise' if one could call it that, he hated Karate, but at least it wasn't Mishima Style Karate. He too took his fighting stance.

"Ready?" Bobby called out, they both nodded. "Fight!"

They began to circle each other slowly, he wanted to let her make the first move. About one second later she did just that, she charged at him, fist raised in the air, her attack was so predictable that he almost felt bad for having to beat her up...almost. Just as she was about to strike he blocked with his left arm, but to his surprise she didn't punch, instead she kicked his left side which he had left open when he tried to block. Her first attack was followed by a series of kicks and punches, some of which he was unable to block. He threw a punch that broke the attack, but that she managed to avoid by ducking out of the way.

As she was raising she did an uppercut that narrowly missed him, Hwoarang responded with a kick that sent her falling to the floor. She quickly stood up did a front handspring landing in front of him she then ducked down and swept his feet from under him. He landed flat on his back, the next thing he saw was her fist coming at him, he moved just in time causing her hand to collide with the concrete. She yelled in pain, pulled back her hand and moved the wrist around, apparently checking to see if it was broken. From what he could see it wasn't.

Taking advantage of the fact that she was distracted he tackled her and then sat on her waist. She had made him look like an idiot in front of everyone, he had come looking for a fight and instead ended up falling for one of his own tricks. Pretending to know less than he really did. And to make matters worse he had only been able to land one hit on her. He was angry. He pulled back his fist to punch her face, but stopped when he was halfway through. He saw the look of shock on her pretty face when he did so. He smiled; there was something that would humiliate her more than a punch to the face. Without giving it a second thought...he kissed her.

It wasn't a passionate or romantic kiss, and it was obvious that neither was enjoying it. With almost superhuman strength she pushed him off. "You DISGUSTING son-of-a-bitch!" She yelled as she stood up and roughly wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

Hwoarang who had forgotten about the crowd, was surprised to hear them laughing. _Mission accomplished_, he smirked as he dodged one of her punches. "Don't complain, sweetie," He mocked. "It serves you right for pretending that you sucked. Look at you now," He pointed. "Your stance is perfect." She said nothing, but it was obvious that she was _mad_. She ran at him and attempted to grab him by his sweatshirt, but he surprised her with his 'Machinegun Kicks' attack. The girl fell to the floor again, but was up in less than a second.

She tried to kick him again, but he grabbed her foot before she could strike. He saw a blur of hot pink on his right, he realized too late that she had used _him_ as support to kick with her left foot, kicking him on the side of the head. He let go of her and feeling a little dazed he didn't see what was coming.

"I call this 'Starry Night';" He heard her say as her elbow collided with his chest. "Because it makes you see stars." She finished by striking between his eyes with the back of her fist. She wasn't joking, he _had_ seen stars.

He saw another punch coming and blocked it, then stepped back. "I call _this_ the 'Flying Eagle'," He said as he executed the attack. "Because it makes you soar through the air." He finished as she landed a few feet away. She stood up again, he had to admit that the girl was _good_. He moved closer to her and threw a punch, she was able to pull her head back a little stopping him from making full contact. He hit her between the nose and the upper lip, not stopping to check the damage he gave her a powerful kick in the abdomen, sending her falling to her knees. He noticed a drop of blood fall on the concrete floor.

"COPS!" Someone in the crowd yelled, even with his limited Japanese vocabulary he knew the meaning of that word. Everyone scattered, the man in charge of holding the rope to the 'money basket' dropped it and ran. Hwoarang grabbed his opponent's hand and helped her up, but not before catching the basket and stuffing the money into his pockets. He would not be able to accomplish what he wanted without it.

"This way." He said as he pulled her behind him. He led her behind a stack of crates, through a crack he watched as the police attempted to capture the quickly disappearing crowd.

"Why the hell are you helping me?" The girl asked.

"Don't be so ungrateful, if it weren't for me you'd be living in a cell for at least a few days. By the way," He smiled at her. "Your nose is bleeding."

She reached into her pocket, extracted a piece of tissue and gently wiped away the blood. "This fight is far from over. We are going to finish it today." She firmly stated.

"Sorry, I have a bus to catch, otherwise I'd be happy to give you a rematch." He said knowing very well that it would upset her.

"A rematch!" She covered her mouth apparently realizing that she spoke too loudly. "It is only a rematch when someone has beaten the other person."

"You were on the floor," Hwoarang reminded her, "and you were bleeding. If that doesn't qualify as beaten, I don't know what does."

She pressed the sides of her head with her fingertips. "You are such an arrogant asshole." She took a deep breath then exhaled slowly. "I want to finish this fight." She said calmly.

"I can't." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "But if you really want a rematch..."

"It's not—"

"Shh." He said softly, as he gave her the paper.

She unfolded it and read _"The King of Iron Fist Tournament Five._**"** She looked at him. "So?"

"That's where I'm going, and that's why I have to catch my bus. There are only three days left to register, if you want to 'finish this fight' you should go." He pointed his index finger at her face. "That was really clever, what you did in the beginning."

She slapped his finger away. "What?"

"The way you pretended like you didn't know what you were doing."

She raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "You think so?"

He nodded. "Yeah. It's just too bad that I'm so much better than you or it would have worked."

"You are such an—"

He held up his hands. "Trust me, I've heard them all." He stood up. "Well, it's been fun, _Fallen Angel_, but I have to go." The commotion had now moved to the outside, though thankfully it wasn't happening on the side of the warehouse where he had left his bag hidden.

He felt the girl watching him walk away, as he climbed out of the window where he had come in her heard her yell. "YOU TOOK MY MONEY!" Immediately he heard a couple of officers yelling and running into the warehouse again. He knew they wouldn't catch her, and he was glad...he really wanted to fight her again.


	13. The Man in the Corner

Chapter 12

(The Man in the Corner)

"_Shadows are falling all over town,_

_Another night the blues got me down,_

_Oh misery...I sure could use some company..."_

--Pink (Misery)

"That is the craziest thing I have ever heard." Hwoarang shook his head as he helped himself to a glass of champagne. It was the day before the tournament and all the fighters had been _invited_ to a mandatory meeting. Everyone had received a notice saying that they were to meet in the dining hall of the Mishima hotel. "There is no way in hell that boxing is superior to Tae Kwon Do." He took a sip from his glass then made a face. "I hate this stuff." He put the glass back on the table.

Steve Fox looked at his good friend. "Why would that be crazy?"

"Come on, Tae Kwon Do is an art form that takes years to master."

"And you think I was born knowing how to box?" Steve said as he set down his empty glass. "I don't see what's so great about Tae Kwon Do, all you basically do is kick."

"We do _a lot _more than that, it's much more complicated than you think. Boxing is the easy one, all you do is punch." He said throwing a particularly weak punch. "And you know I'm right about that."

Steve opened his mouth to say something, but stopped apparently noticing something that was going on behind Hwoarang. "...That settles it." Steve said as a smile formed on his lips. "I'm moving to Japan, they have such babes here."

Hwoarang turned around to see if his friend was referring to anyone he knew. "Oh, trust me," He said as he saw a young Japanese woman talking to the doorman. "You don't want _her_." It was the girl that he had met in Kobe three days earlier, this time she wore black pants and her hair now had bright red streaks to match her tube-top.

Steve raised an eyebrow. "Why? Is she_...spoken for_?"

"How the hell should _I_ know?" She spotted Hwoarang and turned in his direction. "I'm just letting you know in advance that she's a complete—"

He couldn't finish. "You stole my money." She said as she stopped about two feet away from him.

"It wasn't stealing," Hwoarang defended. "A few more seconds and I would have won the fight anyway. Besides, I needed it; that registration fee ain't cheap."

"The need does not justify the means."

"What?"

"You stole it." She said looking into his eyes.

They tried to stare each other down for a few seconds. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" Steve said in an attempt to break the silence.

A few more seconds of staring and the girl spoke. "I can introduce myself, and I am not his friend." She turned to Steve. "Amaya Takahashi." She said as she extended her hand.

"Steve Fox." Steve gently took her hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

Without replying she turned back to Hwoarang and giving him one last dirty look she began to move to another area of the room. "See you later,_ sweetheart_." Hwoarang called after her, but she didn't even turn.

"Are you crazy, mate?" Steve said once she was out of earshot. "Why would you piss her off? She's hot!"

"Because I don't like her." He said matter-of-factly. "Let's go see if they have anything decent to drink here.

Amaya was beginning to regret going to Tokyo and entering the tournament. Only one good thing was coming from her trip, being a participant of the tournament she had the opportunity to stay at one of the Mishima hotels for free. But after everything else, did that even matter? Finishing a fight now seemed an extremely petty reason to enter the tournament. She had taken two weeks off work, spent money on transportation and on the registration fee and was now in a city where she didn't know anybody. She had very few friends in Kobe, but at least there she knew where everything was...But then again, she would finally be able to fully test her fighting skills.

As she looked around the dining hall she realized that not one person was standing alone...except for her. It was the first time in her life that she had seen people so different together in one room and actually speaking to one another. She looked to her right and saw a tall and muscled blond man talking to a smaller man who looked to be Chinese. The two were soon joined by...She did a double take when she saw the new member of the now group of three. He wasn't human...was he? His faced looked like that of a skeleton and his body was...robotic? She suddenly turned the other way when she saw that he had caught her staring. Feeling embarrassed at the fact that she had been so rude, she decided to wander to a different area of the room. That was when she saw him...The man standing alone in a corner of the room.

He looked young, about her age; she noticed that he was the only other person of Japanese descent other than herself and the doorman. That in itself was strange, since they were in Japan. He was near a window and standing in such a way that the shadows from the night sky covered part of his face giving him a sort of eerie look. He looked like he didn't want to be bothered, but at the same time it seemed to her that he was almost screaming out for some company. So, going against her better judgment, for she wasn't usually one to start conversations, she decided to go talk to him.

The last thing Jin Kazama wanted was to be seen by anyone, let alone be approached by anyone. He was wearing his best leave-me-alone face for just that reason, unfortunately it did not seem to work. The very pretty Japanese girl who had arrived just a few minutes before had spotted him and was now on her way over. He wanted to tell her to go away and leave him alone, but he couldn't be so rude, what would his mother have thought?_ Oh well_, he thought, _as long as she doesn't start to flirt I can make an effort to tolerate her_.

"Hi." The girl smiled. "I hope you don't mind me coming to talk to you, but it seems that both of us need some company."

"I don't mind." Jin said, though he really felt that he didn't need any company.

"...So..." She looked a little uncomfortable. "Is this your first tournament?"

"No." He said curtly.

"Oh. I guess that by my question you can tell that this is my first." Jin nodded and began to survey the room. "Am I bothering you?" She asked. "Because if I am you could just tell me."

He hesitated a moment before answering. "...No."

"...You know what?" The girl sighed. "It's obvious that I'm annoying you so I'll just leave you. Good luck at the tournament."

"Wait." Jin said as she turned to leave causing her to stop. He felt guilty for behaving so badly. It was her first time at the tournament so she probably didn't know anybody and she probably didn't even know what she was getting herself into. The least he could do was be nice to her. "I apologize."

She raised her eyebrow. "Does that mean that you want me to stay?"

"I would like you to stay, that is if you like."

She smiled. "Okay."

"What is your name?" Jin asked.

"Amaya Takahashi."

"I didn't see your name on the list."

"I registered at the last possible minute, it took me a while to decide whether I should enter."

"If you don't mind me asking..." He began to feel curious. "Why did you enter?"

Amaya pointed to the opposite side of the room. "You see the Korean guy with the bad dye job?"

"Hwoarang?" Jin saw his self-appointed rival stare intently at them.

"Is that his name?" She asked turning back to Jin.

"He dyes his hair?" Jin was intrigued.

"Of course, you should know that Asians don't have red hair." She said rolling her eyes. "You can practically see the roots..." She smiled wickedly. "...But I'll save that comment for when I fight him."

Jin could almost feel a smile forming on his lips, but he stopped it once he guiltily remembered that he had wished her to go away at first. "So you're here because of him?"

"The jerk owes me a fight." She explained. "We never finished the one three days ago, so he just claimed to have won...he wishes. I nearly got arrested because of him...Wait," She said as if suddenly realizing something. "You never told me your name."

"I'm sorry. It's Jin Kazama." Just as he was about to offer his hand he saw a figure stand between them. "...Xiao..."

"We need to talk, Jin." The pretty, Chinese girl bore a serious expression, that in itself was cause for alarm as he had only seen her like that one or two times before. She turned to Amaya. "Please excuse us." Jin could do nothing but give her an apologetic look; taking the hint Amaya smiled one last time before leaving them alone.

Xiaoyu was now a twenty-year-old woman, no longer the cute teenaged girl that he had met more than four years before. She wore white pants and a simple sleeveless black top and had traded her pigtails for a stylish shoulder length cut. She folded her arms and looked intently at him. "Do you have any idea how worried about you I have been?"

"I can assure you that you have nothing to worry about." He said as he looked down at his feet.

"Liar." She simply stated.

"I'm fine..." As he looked to the door he spotted a gift from God...Julia Chang, someone he knew Xiaoyu would want to talk to. He knew that his friend meant well, that she truly was concerned and he was eternally grateful to her for that. However, at this precise moment he wanted nothing more than to be left alone. "...Isn't that Julia coming in?" He said hoping that she would opt to talk to Julia instead.

"Nice try," Xiaoyu smiled. "But I already saw her earlier today. I'm sorry if I seem annoying, but I really am worried about you. I'm sure that I'm probably the only friend that you have in the entire world, and that's only because I'm so stubborn and refuse to let you shut me out."

She was the only friend that he had, and she was telling the truth. Everyone else always gave up on him, and that hurt him in a way, but he knew that he was the only one to blame. Xiaoyu was a different story he had tried so many times to convince her that he didn't need anyone, but it was always to no avail. "I really am fine."

Xiaoyu sighed. "Jin...You can't fool me. Do you know what I did after the fourth tournament?" He shook his head. "I went to look for you. I flew to Brisbane, 'cause you told me that you had been there, but of course you were gone." She smiled brightly. "Oh yeah, and I met the man of my dreams there, his name is Dean and he's in the tournament too, I convinced him to enter." She shook her head and stopped. "But let's not get sidetracked. Anyway, I was going to keep looking for you but then I realized that I might accidentally lead Heihachi to you so I stopped."

"Oh." What else could he say? He had never asked her to do that.

"What I'm trying to say is that I truly care about you and want what's best for you. I will never forget the time that you sent me that e-mail before the last tournament. You were looking out for me, and now I'm just trying to look out for you. If I don't, who will?" She smiled. "And yes this means that I'll annoy you throughout the entire tournament, don't even try to avoid me."

Jin sighed. "I believe it."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I love you too, and to prove that I do want you to be happy I'll go talk to Julia." Without saying another word she turned on her heel.

_She says that she cares, but she can never understand_, the voice within him spoke. _One day she will grow tired and give up on you, everyone's patience has limits_. Jin closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "...Just leave me alone." He said as he leaned on the wall, he knew that the voice had been right.

Amaya saw that Jin was once again alone, but she knew better than to go talk to him. She hoped that she hadn't gotten him in trouble with his girlfriend, or whatever she was; it had probably looked like she was flirting with him. Now that she thought about it...why hadn't she been flirting with him? It was strange, but she didn't feel the least bit attracted to him_...why? _She had instantly liked him but not in that way. There had to be a reason why, he was very good looking and seemed to be a nice person, _unlike that Hwoarang jerk_. It was almost creepy, but at that precise moment she noticed Hwoarang staring at her; as he saw her turn he quickly looked somewhere else and continued to talk with Steve. Why had he been staring at her? Was there something wrong with her hair? Or maybe she had sat on something? She wished she knew where the bathrooms were.

Now feeling self-conscious she looked around the room for a friendly female face that she could ask those questions to. She found none. Every female in the room looked like a complete bitch, except for the Chinese girl that had interrupted her and Jin and the American-looking girl that she was talking to. But she didn't think it would be a good idea to talk to her. She looked at her watch, the meeting was set to begin at seven and it was now six forty-five. As she looked up she saw a silver-haired man dressed in en elegant suit enter the room. After spotting a long-haired Chinese man, who she assumed was his friend he went over to him and they began to talk. She didn't know why, but she felt a sense of déjà vu, she shrugged it off as having seen him on TV or in a business magazine, but still...she needed to know who he was.

She made her way across the room over to the doorman. "Hi." She smiled. "Who was that man that just came in?"

The man checked his clipboard. "That was Lee Chaolan."

"Thanks." She had never heard that name before...had she?

"I need your name, sir." She looked to the door again to see who had just come in and was surprised to see someone who looked to be...an older and scared version of Jin?

"Shouldn't you already know?" The newcomer looked scornfully at the man. He was a lot scarier than Jin.

"I'm sorry, sir—"

"Are you so incompetent that you don't even know the fighter's names?" He asked outraged.

"Sir, my job is only to—"

"Kazuya Mishima." He screwed up his face in disgust. "I see the old man will let anybody work here nowadays."

Amaya stood in his way as he was about to enter. The man was obviously in no position to talk back to him, so she decided to do it for him. "I doubt identifying potential assholes was in his job description." She said defiantly.

When he saw her there was an apparent look of surprise on his face, but he immediately switched it to a malicious smile. "You remind me of a woman whose big mouth got her into more trouble than she could handle."

Amaya gave him a confused look. "...What?"

He surveyed the area, his gaze lingering on the silver-haired man standing on the opposite side of the room. "...I see." He said as he turned back to Amaya. "You better go back to your daddy before something bad happens to you." He warned as he walked away leaving Amaya terribly confused. _He must have confused me with someone else..._

Kazuya settled in a corner of the room where he knew he wouldn't be bothered. Looking around he noticed his son; curiously he was doing the same thing that he was, trying not to get noticed. His son...He still couldn't believe it. As Kazuya looked at him he tried to feel something for him...anything, but as always he felt nothing. He had not felt anything for anyone in a long time, even when he tried. He noticed that as time passed his emotions died...slowly. In over twenty years the only thing that he had been able to feel freely was hatred and contempt, as his other emotions faded those became stronger. As he looked at Jin he realized that he did feel something for his son after all..._hate_. Though why, he couldn't explain.

It was obvious that his other half was taking over Jin, slowly overcoming his spirit. It was now more apparent than it had been at the last tournament...much more. He could feel what Jin was feeling...complete and utter loneliness. He had felt the same one day and now he was glad that he had been freed of those emotions. For a short moment he felt pity for his son...but that soon disappeared and was once again replaced by hate. He was the one standing in his way of becoming whole. He had failed to defeat him in the last tournament, but that would not happen again.

After the clock had struck seven p.m. a middle-aged Japanese man had arrived announcing that he was there on Heihachi Mishima's behalf. It was now well past seven and Amaya could not remember ever being so bored. More than once she had been tempted to slam her head against the wall, as she thought it would make for something more entertaining. The man spoke in a painful monotone and made long pauses here and there. He had explained how a fighter advanced in the tournament, the rules of staying at the Mishima Hotel and many other things that she had tuned out for sanity's sake. He then proceeded to read the match-ups for the first day of the tournament. Amaya had been disappointed to discover that she wasn't even scheduled for the first day. An excruciating forty-five minutes later the fighters were told that they were free to go.

She hurriedly tried to go through the door afraid that they would be called back for another speech. Once outside she accidentally bumped into someone, when she looked up she saw Lee Chaolan staring down at her a look of utter surprise covering his handsome features. "Sorry." She said.

He looked thoroughly confused. "...Sayuri?"

"Lee!" They both turned to see a very attractive blond in her early thirties standing by a black Mercedes. She waved at him from across the parking lot.

Not wanting to get two men in trouble in one night she decided to continue on her way. "I'm sorry," She said. "You must have me confused with someone else." Without waiting to hear a response she spun on her heel and left the building.


	14. Questions

Chapter 13

(Questions)

"_...We all had our reasons to be there  
We all had a thing or two to learn  
We all needed something to cling to..."_

--Alanis Morissette (Forgiven)

Lee stared wide-eyed as the young woman walked hurriedly away. _It has to be her_, he thought as he made his way back to the dining hall entrance.

"Who was that girl?" He asked the doorman once he reached him.

"Which one, sir?"

"The one..." The one what? The one that looked like Sayuri? He realized that he hadn't noticed what she was wearing or anything else. "...She's Japanese—"

"Oh, her." The doorman said. "There was only one Japanese girl so I know who you were talking about."

"What is her name?"

He looked at his clipboard. "Let me see, oh yes," He pointed at a name. "Amaya Takahashi."

"Thank you."

"Lee," He turned to see his girlfriend standing behind him. "What's going on? Did you forget something?"

"I..." He stopped when he saw the person walking through the door.

"You're not _trying_ to win the tournament again, are you?" Kazuya crossed his arms and leaned on the wall.

"I'm really not in the mood for you." He had truly chosen the wrong time to confront him.

Kazuya ignored him. "Wouldn't it just be better if you gave up?" Thinking that it was best to ignore him and continue on his way Lee began to turn back toward the parking lot. "I asked you a question." He felt Kazuya's hand pulling him back.

"Get your hands off me!" He said pushing Kazuya away and forcing him a few steps back; Kazuya looked ready to counter.

"Hey!" Lee heard a familiar voice. "Save it for the tournament." Lei Wulong stood between the two. Kazuya shrugged and without saying another word began to walk toward a black limo, where the driver was ready and waiting by the door. "What's wrong with you?" Lei demanded. "Leave that behavior for the young punks." Lee had known Lei since the first tournament, but they had become friends during the fourth.

Lee knew what had just happened was not acceptable behavior, but he had not been able to help it. All he wanted was to go to his hotel and look up information on that girl, and Kazuya had been in his way. "I don't know." Lee answered shortly and taking his girlfriend's hand once again made his way to his car.

Amaya sat in a bar contemplating her drink. Two different people had confused her with someone else.._.Sayuri_...as she thought about that name she was once again overcome by a sense of déjà vu. She decided that she probably just looked like someone from a pervious tournament. She hoped she could see Jin again to ask him, since this wasn't his first tournament. Or maybe she could even ask Hwoarang—What the_ hell _was she thinking? Why would she want to ask _him_ anything? That was crazy, why had he even popped into her head? He was fighting against an Australian kick boxer named Dean tomorrow, _I wonder how he'll do_—She had to stop those thoughts from plaguing her head.

"Excuse me, Miss," The bartender was standing by her table.

"Yes?" She looked up at him glad to have something interrupting her thoughts.

He set a glass on her table. "A young man asked me to bring you this drink."

"Who?" She asked surprised.

"Over there." He pointed to a table near the door. "The young Korean that can't speak Japanese very well."

Amaya closed her eyes and sighed. "...Thank you." Standing up she grabbed the drink and made her way to Hwoarang's table.

"Hey," He said as she slammed the glass down.

"Why are you stalking me?" She hissed.

"_Stalking_ you?" He asked indignantly. "You wish. I just happened to be here."

"I'm sure." She said and then stormed outside.

"Hey!" Hwoarang followed after her.

"What?" She stopped but didn't turn.

"All I did was buy you a drink. You don't have to be such a bitch about it."

"...Excuse you?" She slowly turned around.

"You heard me." He crossed his arms as he stood in front of her.

"I'm supposed to be _nice_?"

"Would it kill you?" He slapped a hand on his forehead. "Oh, wait, it probably would. You'd probably have to be injected with Bitch Revival Serum after trying it, and I'm fresh out."

Amaya closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Why did you even buy me a drink?"

"I was just trying to be friendly."

She placed a hand on her hip. "Well I don't want to be your friend. And I doubt you did it _just_ to be friendly."

"I'm sure you were wishing that it was _Kazama_ who bought you the drink." He said accusingly.

"That is none of your damn business." She said in a barely audible voice.

"It was just a comment."

"Go to hell, and take your comments with you."

"Well you know what?" He said leaning closer to her. "Fuck you."

"No thanks," She smirked as she looked him up and down. "I've had better offers." She turned and began to walk down the street.

"...You...I doubt that!" Hwoarang yelled after her, but felt less than intelligent after saying it. "Bitch." He muttered under his breath, he almost began to walk back to the hotel, but then realized that it was in the direction that she was going. "Wouldn't want her to think that I'm _stalking_ her." He decided to take the long way.

She had been right, he had not bought her the drink to be friendly; he had done it because he knew that it would annoy her. But he really hadn't meant to end up at the same bar where she was, that had been purely coincidental. Where did she get off thinking that he was following her? Did she think that just because she was incredibly beautiful—He stopped dead on his tracks: "I did not just think that." He took a deep breath, exhaled and continued to walk. But why had she chosen to go talk to Jin? Out of all the people in the room why had she found him so interesting? "Because bitches hang together." He laughed at his own joke.

He was now near the hotel entrance, as he approached it he noticed two people talking by the large glass door: Jin and Amaya. For a moment he thought about having some fun harassing them for a while, but as he got closer he was overcome by a strange feeling. He found that he didn't want to annoy them at all, he wanted to...what? Before they could see him he turned to look for the side entrance. All he wanted to do was go in his room and get some sleep.

"Jin?" He jumped at the sound of his name. He turned around ready to see one of Heihachi's minions standing behind him, but was surprised to see Amaya. "Sorry." She smiled. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"Don't worry." He said feeling foolish. "I'm just a little jumpy."

"Are you staying her too?"

"No, I'm just passing by, my motel is a few blocks down."

"Is that girl from earlier here?" The look on her face told him that she had the wrong idea about them.

"Yeah, but it's not like that between us..."

"Oh," She said sheepishly. "Sorry, I just assumed."

"It's okay."

They were silent for a while. "...So..." Amaya began; Jin nodded for lack of something to say. "Some of those fighters are sure um...different."

"Tell me about it."

"That robot-ninja-skeleton-looking guy kinda freaked me out at first."

"Oh," Jin half-smiled. "That's Yoshimitsu, he's a lot more normal than most of the fighters."

"Oh, I guess appearances really are deceiving."

"...Yeah..."

"...Um..." She looked unsure for a moment. "...So...Heihachi Mishima is the organizer of the tournament..."

"...Yeah..."

"...And that one scary-looking guy is Kazuya _Mishima_..."

"...Yeah..." He didn't like where that was going.

"...Um..." She hesitated. "...He looks a lot like you..." He knew he would have to stop the conversation very soon. "...Are you guys...um...related?" She finished biting her lower lip.

Jin clenched his jaw. "He's...he's my father."

"Sorry." She said apparently noticing the change in his demeanor. "It's probably none of my business." He was glad that she had taken the hint.

"Well I better let you go so you can rest for your fight. I'll be cheering for you."

"Thanks." Jin said.

"See ya." She started to walk toward the entrance but suddenly stopped. "Hey, Jin?"

"Yes?" He hoped it wasn't anything about his family.

"In the previous tournaments...Was there anyone who looked like me? Or anyone named Sayuri?"

Her questions struck him as odd. "...No."

"Oh, thanks...Bye" She flashed him one last smile before entering the hotel.

Jin felt strange after speaking with her, for some reason he enjoyed Amaya's company. He genuinely liked her. _Well I do not_, the voice within him spoke. _There is something unnatural about that wench...I loath every fiber of her being_. "The more reason for me to like her." Trying his best to ignore Devil's presence Jin continued on his way to his motel.

As soon as he'd arrived at his hotel room Lee found himself sitting in front of his laptop, his eyes fixed on the list of fighters. "What are you doing, Lee?" His girlfriend sat by him.

"I'm looking up her profile." He said as he clicked on _Amaya Takahashi_.

The beautiful blond laid her head on his shoulder. "Please don't get your hopes up." She said. "She might not be the person you're looking for."

"Please, Valerie." He'd told her everything about his lost daughter on their way to the hotel, he knew that she didn't want him to be disappointed if that girl didn't turn out to be his daughter. A few seconds later he found himself staring at her picture, it had been taken only a day before, at the registration office, yet her hair was different. She had turquoise streaks instead of red.

It was remarkable how much she looked like Sayuri. Her clothes and hair were updated, but the face was the same, except for the look in her eyes...She had the look of someone who had grown up too fast. A look that he knew all to well, something that he saw in old photographs of himself...Of his brother. He had made a promise to his newborn daughter one day, he had promised her that she would have the normal life that he had never had...That she would never suffer...But he had failed...Miserably. With a sigh he looked below the picture and read her profile.

_Name: Amaya Takahashi_

_Country of Origin: Japan_

_Fighting Style: Karate_

_Age: 23_

_Occupation: English Translator and tour guide_

_Hobby: Street Fighting_

_Likes: Shopping, updating her look_

_Dislikes: Answering stupid questions in registration offices_

Lee sighed. "This doesn't tell me much."

"What did you expect to see in her tournament profile?" Valerie asked reminding him that he wasn't alone.

"...I don't know." Deciding to make good use of his hacking skills Lee began to look for any leads to her past.

Three hours later Lee was nearly convinced that Amaya was indeed Lin Yao, everything pointed to it. The first thing he had found was her identification card, which was only a year old and showed her with longer and very blond hair. That told him her address and birth date, the date didn't coincide with his daughter's, but that didn't mean anything. What he found extremely interesting was that it was the same as that of Katsue Takahashi, a little girl who had been born a few days after Lin but had died only a year after her birth.

There was no record of Amaya being born to the Takahashi's and there was no record of her being adopted by them. It was as though she had simply appeared one day. There were no records of her at all anywhere until the Takahashi's had died and she had been taken to an orphanage in Osaka at the age of four. He found her place of employment, and some other things about her past, including her police record. She had been arrested two years prior for street fighting. That had been before she started working at the visitor information center where she served as an English translator.

Her age, mysterious past and undeniable resemblance to Sayuri told him that Amaya Takahashi was indeed Lin Yao Chaolan. There was also the fact that she had lived in Osaka the first fourteen years of her life, which was where the accident had occurred. It couldn't all be a coincidence. How could he make certain that is wasn't a coincidence? And how could he approach her? He closed his laptop and decided that he'd better sleep on it, it was past one a.m. and he had a fight the next day.


	15. Alone

Chapter 14

(Alone)

"_In the depth of the shadow _

_Of my loneliness I hide..."_

--LiquidSky (Shadows)

"Jin Kazama wins!" The announcer said excitedly after Jin delivered the final blow to Nina Williams, the crowd began to cheer after witnessing the event. Amaya, having watched as well, had stood up and was clapping loudly, he was really, really good, the Irish blond never once stood a chance.

"He's good, isn't he?" Amaya heard a female voice speak to her in Japanese; she turned to her right to see the Chinese girl from the night before standing beside her.

"...Uh...Yeah." She took her seat and the girl did the same.

"My name's Xiaoyu, what's yours?"

"Amaya." She said extending her hand.

Xiaoyu shook it and smiled. "Are you watching the next fight?" She asked. Amaya nodded slowly. "Good," Xiaoyu smiled. "Me too." Part of the crowd began to leave, but most of them stayed, soon new people were entering the arena and filling up the empty seats apparently ready for the next fight. "I love your hair." Xiaoyu said as she turned to her. "How did you get the blue to perfectly match the symbol on your shirt?"

_This is a strange girl_, Amaya decided. "Um..." She looked down at her white tank top. "I just noticed that the symbol was the same color as the dye I have, so I used it."

Xiaoyu was silent for a few seconds. "...I'm sorry about last night. I was totally rude."

"Don't worry about it." What else could she say, it was very nice of her to apologize, it was something that she knew _she_ would never have done.

"I'm really not like that, I'm sorry." Amaya smiled as a response. "It was just really important that I talk to Jin...So...Jin talked to you just like that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...You guys hadn't met before last night, right?"

"No."

"...It's strange..." Xiaoyu said thoughtfully. "...Why would he even consider talking to you?" She immediately looked as if she regretted her words. "I didn't mean that in a bad way." Amaya nodded in understanding. "It just seems highly unlikely that he would be interested in you. I mean..." She looked quite embarrassed. "I'll just shut up about that now. I'm really sorry, my foot likes to live in my mouth."

Amaya nodded slowly while smiling, Xiaoyu reminded her of one of her friends back in Kobe, friendly, but a little strange.

"But anyway, I'm glad he talked to you." Xiaoyu smiled. "So are you excited about being in the tournament?"

Amaya shrugged. "I guess," She smiled slightly. "Though I must confess that it is kind of cool that I'm on Pay Per View."

"Yeah. Look," Xiaoyu pointed to the arena. "The fight is about to start."

"We are once again ready to begin another exiting fight!" The announcer was speaking in Japanese, whenever he finished the English translation would boom through the speakers installed in various parts of the arena. "To my right, a Vale Tudo expert; Craig Marduk!" Marduk turned to the audience and growled. "To my left a man who's no stranger to this tournament; the Silver Haired Devil, Lee Chaolan!"

Amaya and Xiaoyu clapped along with the crowd. "I wonder who that man is..." Amaya said.

"Which one?"

"Lee Chaolan...I don't know why, but I just want to talk to him, I haven't stopped thinking about him since I saw him."

"Oh." Xiaoyu looked pensive. "He _is_ cute, but he's got to be at least twice your age."

"No, no, no." Amaya shook her head. "It's not like that."

"Oh, sorry." Xiaoyu said sheepishly. "Anyway, I hope he wins. Did you know that he's Jin's uncle?"

"Really?" Amaya was surprised, Jin was obviously Japanese, but Lee was Chinese. "Was Jin adopted or something?"

"No, Lee was."

"Oh." Amaya fixed her eyes on the two fighters; Lee's movements were so fluid and graceful...he was amazing. She felt admiration for this man that she had never met before, there was something about him that made her want to get to know him...why?

The fight was over almost after it started. "Lee Chaolan wins!"

Amaya stood up, but didn't cheer along with the rest of the crowd. "...I have to go talk to him..." Before Xiaoyu could respond she left for the arena exit. A few minutes later she was waiting by the men's locker room.

_What the hell am I doing? _She felt like a crazy fan waiting for her favorite pop idol to come out and sign her shirt. Just as she was about to head back she heard the door open, instinctively she turned toward it and found herself face to face with Lee Chaolan.

She felt self-conscious when she saw the look of utter shock on his face. Maybe she shouldn't have chased after him. "...Um...Hi." She said awkwardly.

"...Hi..." He said slowly.

"...I don't mean to be weird or anything," She began nervously. "But I just wanted to tell you that I thought you were amazing in that fight." That was sooo lame! She felt like kicking herself, why had she even said that?

"...Thanks..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be annoying or anything."

"No, no." Lee shook his head. "There's no need to apologize at all."

"Good." She smiled. "I'll see you later then."

"Wait," She stopped mid-turn. "Did you have breakfast yet?"

Now _that_ she didn't expect. "...No."

"Would you like to have breakfast with me then?"

"...I..." She hoped he wasn't getting any _ideas_, but the fact that he kept his eyes on her face rather than sweeping them all over her body like other men usually did made her feel secure. Or maybe he was being really discreet, it didn't matter, she was smart, if there was anything fishy she'd be able to tell. "...Sure."

"Great," He smiled. "There's a nice restaurant a couple of blocks down, we could walk there if you want."

"Okay."

Lee watched in amazement at the beautiful young woman sitting in front of him...his _daughter_. After more than twenty years he was sitting at the same table with his precious Lin; it was all too much to be a coincidence. She was so much like Sayuri, the way she held her glass, her smile, her laugh; yet she was so different. He was learning so much about her, he felt that he could talk to her forever. "Where did you learn to speak English so well? You don't even have an accent."

"Thank you." She smiled then took a sip from her glass of orange juice. "After the Takahashi's..." She looked down; he noticed that she had not named them her parents. "After they...um...died, I was sent to a foster home with a couple, they were both teachers and one of them taught English at a high school so they were the first to teach me. After that I was sent to a different foster home, but I'd become interested in the language and took as many classes as I could. Then when I was sixteen I went to the U.S. for a year in the foreign exchange student program, I lived in a small town in California.

She paused for a short moment and smiled. "I loved it so much that when I turned twenty I decided to go live in the U.S. for a while, only problem is I picked Los Angeles, have you ever been to Los Angeles?" Lee nodded. "Then you see my problem. I perfected my English, but after a year I'd had enough, I am never going back." She was pensive for a few seconds. "Though I have been thinking about visiting New York and seeing if I like it enough to live there, but now I don't think I'll be able to." She looked at Lee. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" He didn't want her to stop, he wanted to hear everything that she had to say.

She looked embarrassed. "I just realized that I'm probably boring you, I'm sorry, I don't usually talk this much."

"No, please continue. Why don't you think you'll be able to go to New York?"

She looked unsure. "Are you sure I'm not boring you?"

"Positive." He smiled as he lifted the pitcher of orange juice and offered to pour more in her glass.

"No, thanks. Well, I used my vacation time to come to the tournament, so now I'll have to wait until next year. I could just go, but what if it doesn't work out? Then I'd have to come back and I'd be out of work. I don't want to do that, I have a really good job."

"What do you do?" He had learned that the previous night, but wanted to hear it from her.

"I work at a tourist information place, sometimes during the weekends I give tours of some of the sights at Kobe to English speaking tourists."

"Do you have any family?"

She lowered her eyes. "None." She looked up at him and cocked her head slightly. "Do you?"

He never imagined a simple question to be so painful. Did he? She was there sitting in front of him, but he couldn't tell her. "...I...I think I do."

"It's probably none of my business." She said apologetically, obviously noticing his reluctance to answer.

"Why not? I asked you."

"I suppose." She said looking at her watch. "Oh, the next fight is about to start, I have to go."

He wanted to stop her, but what could he say? "I hope we can do this again."

"Yes." She stood up. "It was very nice." She wore a genuine smile. "Thank you for breakfast and thank you for listening to my ramblings." She turned and headed toward the exit.

Lee watched her walk away, he would have to tell her, and it would have to be very soon. Though how to tell her, he still didn't know.

When Amaya arrived the arena was nearly full, she found a fairly good seat next to three very pretty Japanese girls who looked to be in their late teens or early twenties. The announcer had just named the fighters and they were about to start. Hwoarang was fighting against Dean Jacobson, an Australian kick boxer.

"That Hwoarang is such a hottie." The girl sitting next to her said turning to her friends.

"He might be cute," The girl in the middle began. "But Jin Kazama is waaay cuter."

"No way." The first girl glared at her friend.

_Fangirls._ How she loathed them.

"Actually I think that they both have their endearing qualities." The girl on the far end said. "Don't tell me you'd mind being stuck in a deserted island with either one of them."

"I wouldn't mind being stuck with both of them." The first girl half said, half giggled, the other two began to giggle with her.

"Do you think her wears boxers or briefs?" The one in the middle wondered. _More_ giggling.

Amaya decided to attempt tuning them out, she had already missed half the fight because of them. She focused all her energy into watching the fighters. The first thing she saw was Hwoarang taking a kick to the face, that put her in a better mood...or did it? Dean was good, but apparently not good enough, Hwoarang executed his Flying Eagle move, she recognized it from their fight. As she saw Dean fly through the air and land unceremoniously on the hard ground she wondered if she had looked that stupid when he had done it to her. She really wanted Dean to get up. The announcer came and began the count, Dean tried to get up but was unable to do so before he counted to ten and Hwoarang was declared the winner.

Feeling defeated herself she decided to at least go harass him. Her thoughts were interrupted by the loud squealing that had erupted by her. "I knew he'd win!" The three girls were hugging each other.

"I feel kinda bad for the Dean guy though," The one next to Amaya said. "He was cute too."

"Oh well." The other two said in unison.

"Let's go see if we can catch Hwoarang," The one at the end suggested. "Maybe we can have him sign our shirts."

"Or other things." The one in the middle smiled maliciously and all three of them started giggling again then ran toward the exit, or at least tried to, it was quite impossible to do so in the enormous crowd.

Feeling thoroughly disgusted, and a _little_ curious, she decided to see how he would react to their offerings. A few minutes later she found them near the locker rooms. The three girls were giggling as he signed one of the girl's shirts, on the chest area of course. She also noticed that one of the other girls had something scribbled with black marker on the back of her white, and very tight, pants. Hwoarang then proceeded to sign the last girl's chest, the other two began to cling to his free arm. Deciding that she'd had enough she stepped toward them and spoke. "Would you _ladies_ care to keep your hands off my fiancé?" She said in Japanese.

Their faces fell at the same time. "Oh." The one whose chest was being signed spoke. "We didn't know." She said haughtily and all three departed.

"Wait!" Hwoarang called after them. "What did you say to them?" He turned to Amaya, a look of utter disappointment covering his features.

Good thing he didn't speak Japanese, she'd be hard-pressed to explain _that_ little comment. She knew she should have come up with a better excuse to shoo them away...Just to be safe, after all, she didn't want him getting the wrong idea. "I told them that you'd give them a call once the rash clears up." She smirked.

He looked at her in disbelief. "You are such a bitch." He shook his head. "Why'd you have to go and do that for? They were all really hot."

"I had to, what if a child passed by and witnessed the incident, he'd be traumatized for life!"

Hwoarang narrowed his eyes and began advancing toward her, she felt the urge to move away but since that was probably what he wanted she decided to stand her ground. "I get it..." He said. "You are _jealous_." He accused.

"What!" She could not believe what she was hearing. "That is the last thing I am!" He continued to advance toward her but she refused to move. "Do you think I really want your hands sliding all over my body like they were on those three whores?"

"Why don't we see how you like it?" He was now close enough to her that he was able to put his hands on her waist but stopped dead in his tracks when she slapped him across the face.

"Get your grubby hands off me!" She yelled.

He touched his hand to his cheek a look of surprise on his face. "You are so violent!"

"I am sick of you and I am sick of your—" She stopped when she saw Kazuya Mishima walk down the hallway toward them. He stopped in front of her and gave her one of the coldest glares she had ever received then proceeded to enter the locker room.

"Great." Hwoarang shook his head. "Look what you did."

"What?"

"Now I'm gonna have to go in there and be alone with that guy." He pointed his finger at her. "This is all your fault."

"My fault?"

"Well you're the one who held me up, if it wasn't for you I'd be done and out already."

"Are you scared?" Amaya said in a tone of mock concern. "Do you want me to go in there with you and make sure that he doesn't hurt you?"

"You'd love that, wouldn't you?" He smirked. "Then you'd get to see me undress."

At that point Amaya knew that he would counter anything she said. She held up her hands and headed toward the exit leaving Hwoarang standing alone.

_Alone_. He was always alone. Ever since his mother's death his life had been nothing but loneliness. Eight years had passed since then but the pain was still there...He had thought that he would one day get used to the idea that he would never see his mother again, that day however, had not come. On the contrary, he seemed to miss her more and more everyday.

He sat on the bed of his small motel room, the darkness of the room threatening to swallow him. _Just like the darkness inside me_, he thought sadly. He reached for the remote resting on the bedside table and turned on the television set. The glow of the television drove the darkness back somewhat, but Jin didn't even notice. He was absently staring at the pattern on the sheets covering the bed.

"Why am I here?" He uttered softly.

_To get your revenge._ Devil hissed inside his head.

"I don't want revenge." Jin said firmly.

_Yes you do. You want revenge for all that you have suffered...You want to make your grandfather suffer as you have._

"I don't want revenge, I want to free the world of his evil."

_You want to make him pay...You need to make him pay. You want revenge, that is all you have ever wanted._

Jin's hands began to shake slightly. "...No."

_He deserves it._

"...No"

_He deserves to die by your hand, the hand of the one who has suffered most._

"...Leave me alone."

_He deserves it, he—_

Jin was quickly brought back to reality when he heard knocking on his door; he was grateful for that. He stood up and walked toward it, but just as he was about to unlock it he hesitated...What if it was one of Heihachi's men? He carefully looked through the small hole one the door and was relieved to see Xiaoyu standing in front of his door.

"Hi!" She stepped inside once he had opened it.

"What are you doing here?" He asked as he closed and locked it.

"Hi, Xiao, my bestest friend in the whole wide world, how are you?" Xiaoyu said as she set a bag on the bedside table.

"Sorry." He really hadn't meant to sound rude.

"No problem."

"What's in the bag?" Jin asked feeling a little curious.

"Food. Dean and I went out to dinner and figuring that you probably forgot to eat I decided to bring you a little something."

"You didn't have to."

"I know, but I'm just generous that way." She smiled, he couldn't help doing the same, he actually _had_ forgotten to eat anything after breakfast. "What are you watching?" Xiaoyu asked as she sat on the floor in front of the TV.

What _was_ he watching? "...I don't know." He said as he sat by her.

"Do you want me to change the channel?" She held the remote in front of his face.

"Sure, it's time for the news, maybe they'll say something about the tournament."

Xiaoyu flipped through the channels until she found what she was looking for. _"...The kidnappers were apprehended and are now awaiting trail."_

"It always cheers me up when the bad guys are caught." Xiaoyu said.

"_We will now go to Keiko Yuki who is with the organizer of the Fifth King of Iron Fist Tournament, Mr. Heihachi Mishima." _Jin felt himself tense as he heard that. _"Keiko..."_

"_Thank you, Ichiro." _Jin clenched his fists as he saw the young anchorwoman standing by his grandfather. _"As you can see I am with Mr. Heihachi Mishima of the Mishima Zaibatsu." _She turned toward him. _"Mr. Mishima, can you tell us why you decided to organize yet another tournament?"_

"_The main reason was to see my son and grandson again."_

"He's lying!" Jin sat up.

"I know Jin..." Xiaoyu said sympathetically.

"_I understand that your grandson, Jin Kazama, actually won the last two tournaments, is that correct?"_

"_Yes, Miss Yuki, that is correct." _

"_So that would mean that technically he is the owner of the Zaibatsu?"_

"_The rules of the tournament state that the winner must claim the Zaibatsu, since he has not done so I am unable to put it under his name." _Jin couldn't stand hearing him, his lies, he felt his anger rising.

"_Does that mean that you are willing to give him the Zaibatsu?"_

"_Of course I am. He is my blood, I would feel much more at ease if he were to win it."_

"Liar." Jin said through clenched teeth. _Make him pay_ He heard Devil's voice. _Go now and make him pay._

"Are you all right, Jin?" Xiaoyu asked concerned.

"He's lying." Jin said again.

"_Where did he go after the last tournament?"_

"_I wish I knew, he just ran away and never told me."_

Jin began to breathe heavily. _Kill him! Go kill him and make it all end. _"...No..." Jin felt himself about to lose control, he had completely forgotten that he wasn't alone.

"_If you saw your grandson again, what would you say to him?"_

Heihachi took on a sad expression. _"I don't know, it's been so long..." _Jin was clenching his fists so tightly that he was beginning to feel his nails cut through his skin._ "...I would ask him what I did wrong, first of all, then I would ask him to stay...I am an old man, Miss Yuki and I desire nothing more than to make peace with my family—_**"** Jin didn't hear any more, he felt Devil take over his body.

"Jin?" Xiaoyu saw him stand up, strange symbols covered his face and his eyes became a glowing red. She watched in shock as shirt ripped due to the black feathered wings sprouting from his back. "What's happening?" She asked in a small voice.

Jin bent down and moved his face very close to hers. "I have been _dying_ to meet you in person." His voice sounded very different, she knew that he wasn't Jin. "Why do you try to help him?" Xiaoyu was too scared to say anything. "You can't help him, no one can. Not you and not that wench that he met the other day. So I suggest that you stop trying...For your own sake." He said menacingly, then proceeded to move a strand of dark hair away from her face, she noticed the very long nail at the end of his finger. "Are you scared?" She found that she couldn't answer. "You should be." He began to cut a line with his sharp nail just below her collarbone.

"Jin?" The pain of the nail cutting her skin helped her find her voice. The creature stopped and she noticed that the symbols began to fade. "Please come back..." His wings began to retract into his body and his eyes were once again their normal shade of brown.

Sweat began to run down his forehead. "...Xiao...I..." He looked from her face down to the place where he had cut. "I'm sorry." He said sounding horrified. "I am so sorry." He took a few steps back and collapsed on the bed, apparently too tired to move. "I'm sorry." He said again.

Xiaoyu stood up. "What happened to you?" She asked shakily.

"Please leave." Jin said as he closed his eyes, a tear began to run down his cheek. "Please just leave."

"I can't leave if you don't tell me what happened."

He sat up. "Just leave!" He said a little more forcefully than he had intended. "...Please." He added quietly.

Without saying another word she wiped her tears and headed for the door. Jin closed his eyes and heard the door open and close. The only person in the world who gave a damn about him had just walked out of his life; he felt fresh tears well up in his eyes. His mother was gone and now his only friend had left him. He should have known it would turn out like this, that he would forever remain alone.


	16. Revelation

Chapter 16

(Memories)

"_She's taking her time making up the reasons  
To justify all the hurt inside..."_

--Savage Garden (To the Moon and Back)

Lee and Amaya finally arrived at his hotel, as they entered the room she could not help being amazed. The Mishima Hotel was by no means shabby, but this hotel looked like a palace in comparison. Judging by the way Lee dressed, what he drove and where he was staying it seemed that he was very, very rich. Hwoarang had been right, what could _he_ possibly have to gain by pretending to be her father? The same blond woman that she had seen the night of the meeting was sitting on a sofa watching TV, she stood up when she saw them enter.

"This is my girlfriend, Valerie." Lee introduced her.

"Hello, Amaya." The woman smiled as she shook her hand.

She felt a bit uncomfortable knowing that he had been talking about her and she had not even known. "Hi." She said quietly.

"I have some errands to run." Valerie said. "It was nice meeting you." She gave Lee a reassuring smile. "I'll be back later."

As Valerie left the room was filled with the same uncomfortable silence that she had experienced on their trip to the hotel. Without looking at her Lee walked to a small table on top of which rested a laptop. He opened it and began to type, a few seconds later he beckoned Amaya over. "Look at this."

She hesitantly stepped over to him, when she looked at the screen she was shocked to see a picture of herself...but it wasn't her...was it? She had never had her hair below the shoulders and this woman did, there was also the writing on top of the picture it said: _Mishima Zaibatsu Confidential Employee File_. To the side of the picture was the name _Sayuri Yoshida_, below it a Tokyo address and a birth date that was from..._forty-eight years earlier?_ She turned to Lee. "Who is she?"

"Sayuri. We had a relationship over twenty-three years ago..." Lee began to tell her the entire story of his life with Sayuri...and their daughter Lin Yao. Though she had felt uncomfortable at the beginning Amaya realized that the more he talked the more _she_ was able to open up. When they had finished talking she too had told him her story...most of it. They had arrived at the hotel at eleven a.m. and it was now almost four in the afternoon. It was strange how an entire life could be discussed in a matter of hours, how all the details and the pain were overlooked. She knew their suffering could not be put into words, no matter how long they talked or how many words they said they would never be able to express what they truly felt inside. Once they had finished talking she was almost convinced that she was indeed his daughter.

"So what now?" Amaya asked after a long silence.

"There is only one thing that will rid us of our doubts...a blood test."

She nodded. "I suppose."

"We could do it right now." Lee suggested. "I called a doctor yesterday, knowing that you'd probably want solid proof, he said that we could go any time today."

Lee was right; she did want solid proof. After all, judging by the way things usually went for her it was possible that it would all turn out to be a coincidence, a cruel joke that life was playing on them. He however, seemed much less skeptical, she hoped that he wouldn't be very hurt if she didn't turn out to be his daughter. As for her...She didn't know how she would feel, she didn't know how she felt now.

She took a deep breath. "We might as well."

It was almost dark. Hwoarang sat on a bench by the hotel entrance smoking a cigarette. Steve had invited him to one of the local clubs, but for some reason he had not felt like going. So now he sat alone and had no one to blame but himself. "What are you doing out here?"

He looked up to see Amaya standing by him. "Nothing. They don't allow smoking in the lobby so..."

"But I'm sure you asked for a smoking room, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but it gets boring in there."

"Yeah."

He took out his cigarette pack. "Do you smoke?"

"Not any more."

He put it back in his pocket. "Why'd you quit?"

"I met a guy who didn't like it."

"Where is he?"

She shrugged. "I don't know." She said as she sat by him.

"So...How did it go?"

She sighed. "It went."

"Is he your father?"

"We did a blood test, but we'll get the results back in three days."

"Three days?" He found that somewhat odd. "With all our technology it takes three days to get some test results back?"

"I guess."

They were silent for a long while, watching as the street lamps came to life, as darkness attempted to envelope the city of Tokyo. "...Are you okay?" He asked noticing the far away look on her face.

"I was just thinking..." She sighed again. "...About how unfair life is."

"You're just now figuring that out?"

"I wish..." She began to rub her arms.

It was strange to see her behaving like a normal person around him. He had expected her to respond with a sarcastic remark.

To further shatter his expectations she began to talk. "I can deal with the fact that I was abandoned, that no one wanted me as a child or that no one was able to take care of me...but if Lee turns out to be my father...it would mean that all my suffering was in vain." She shook her head. "If he turns out to be my father it means that all this time I could have been happy, I could have had a family. Instead I had to live with psychos." She turned to him. "Do you know what my first memories are?" She didn't wait for him to answer no. "When I was around four years old I remember living with the Takahashis. All they ever did was fight, they yelled and screamed and broke dishes. I was always so scared." She closed her eyes.

"But there is one day that I remember with particular clarity. They were fighting again, but somehow I knew that it was different...I went to my room to hide, but I felt as if something were calling me, telling me to get out of there...I can't even explain it...I hid in the attic and a little while later I heard something really loud..." She roughly wiped away a tear. "...As I got older I found out that it had been a gunshot. I remember Mariko calling me...Or I _think_ she was calling me. She kept yelling for _Katsue_...She would do that sometimes..."

Hwoarang wished he could say something comforting, but he knew that whatever he said would only ruin things. He had never been one to console people, so he decided that it would be best to let her go on and not say anything. "...Anyway," Amaya continued "I knew I would get in trouble if I didn't answer, but I was so scared that I didn't move. Then I heard another shot...I don't know how long I stayed there, just hiding." She paused.

"...By then we didn't live in the house by the mountains anymore, we lived in Osaka, so I guess a neighbor must have heard the commotion and called the police. I heard people talking downstairs, and later I heard someone come up, it was an officer. I remember the look on his face when he saw me...he looked like he felt so sorry for me. He picked me up and took me downstairs, there were many other officers there, when they saw me they all had the same look. One of them said; 'take her out through the back, we can't let her see.'" Tears were now flowing freely down her face. "What kind of a world is it when a four year old child has to go through that..." She stopped apparently not wanting to talk anymore.

Hwoarang sighed; his childhood had not been what one would call _wonderful_ either, so he could relate to her story. "The same kind of world that lets a seven-year-old boy watch his mother die form a drug overdose."

She wiped her tears. "You?"

He nodded. "I was living in San Francisco at the time. When I was a baby my parents moved to the U.S. in search of _a better life._" He shook his head. "When I was six my father ran off with some whore and abandoned my mother and me. She began to drink and do God knows what other things, then one day...she just died...in front of me."

Talking about it felt so strange, it almost felt like a story he had heard somewhere, or like a scene from a movie. It felt so recent, yet so far away...He didn't like thinking about it, and why he was telling someone was a complete mystery to him.

"What did you do?" Her question brought him back to reality.

"...We lived in this really horrible apartment building, and we had this weird neighbor lady, so she took me in...For a while. I guess I was too much of a handful for her. So one day the old hag left me on the doorstep of the only other Korean that she knew, Baek Do Son. He took me in when no one else would." Hwoarang smiled as he remembered his mentor. "He was the greatest Tae Kwon Do master I have ever met." He was suddenly overcome by a sense of melancholy as he realized how much he missed the man who had been like a father to him. He shook his head attempting to rid himself of those thoughts. "But anyway, we moved back to Seoul when I was nine, where we lived for another six years...until he died."

"I'm sorry." Amaya said sympathetically.

Hwoarang shrugged. He really didn't like talking about the past and decided that it would not happen again. "So what did _you_ do after...that?" He asked changing the subject.

"...I bounced from foster home to foster home. When I was about seven I discovered Karate, I guess I sort of became obsessed with it, I would even go as far as to steal money to pay for the lessons." She laughed softly. "When I didn't have money I would sometimes sneak into them, but anyway...When I was fourteen I thought that I had finally struck gold. I was sent with this really rich and respected couple and they seemed to like me." She shook her head. "Boy, was I wrong...It all went well enough at first, but one day the wife decided to go on a business trip. The husband took advantage of the situation and he...um..." She bit her lip and looked down at the floor. "...You know...He tried to...have his way with me." Hwoarang felt himself tense as she said that. "But what he didn't know was that I had a black belt in Karate. I kicked his ass and then reported him. It turned out that he'd tried it with two other girls and actually succeeded with one. The good doctor is still in jail as we speak."

"So what did you do then?"

"I ran away, I wasn't willing to take anything from anyone anymore. I moved to Kobe where I still live."

"...Wow." Hwoarang said after a while. "I guess we both have enviable lives."

"Yeah." She looked up at the sky. "That's why I hardly have any friends," She suddenly looked down. "Sorry, I was just thinking out loud."

"No, go on." The words escaped before he could stop them.

She looked up again. "...I guess I've always felt jealous of their lives, of how good they have it. I've always just felt like I don't fit in."

"Well you won't have to worry about that here." Hwoarang said. "Almost everyone I know from the tournament has a fucked up life too, so you'll fit right in."

Amaya smiled. "I bet you're just saying that to cheer me up."

"Why would I do that? I don't even like you." He said playfully.

"...I guess not." He thought he heard a hint of disappointment in her voice, but it had probably just been his imagination...Not that he wanted her to be disappointed. "Well," She stood up I already missed the match-up call, so I guess I'd better go see who I have to fight tomorrow."

"See ya." What else could he say?

"It was...um...nice not arguing with you."

"Same here." Hwoarang watched her as she walked away; he suddenly stood up. "...Why the hell am I acting like my good twin?" He asked himself, but then decided that it was probably best not to search for an answer...He just might find one.

Amaya stepped into the hotel. They had been told at the meeting that if they missed the match-up call they were to go to the front desk in the hotel where an envelope with their opponents name would be waiting for them, so she stopped there. "Hi, is there an envelope for Amaya Takahashi?" She asked the clerk.

"Let me check." The man on the other side of the counter looked in a drawer and extracted a white envelope then handed it to her. "Good luck."

"Thank you." She stepped into the elevator and opened the envelope. When she extracted the paper and read the name inside her heart sank. _Hwoarang_. Somehow she wasn't as happy about having to fight him as she thought she would be.


	17. Memories

Chapter 17

(Easier Done than Said)

"_I'm sorry I said it._

_My motor-mouth done and did it again._

_Exceeding the speed limit, and now I'm feelin' it."_

--Daniel Bedingfield (Blown it Again)

Amaya stepped off the elevator and stuffing the envelope into her pocket began to walk toward her room. About three doors down from where she was standing she saw Xiaoyu about to go into her room. Apparently seeing her she stopped just as she was about to go in.

"Hey." Amaya said stopping in front of her.

"Hi." Xiaoyu gave her a sort of smile.

"Did you get the match-up call?" Amaya wanted to know.

Xiaoyu looked down at the floor. "No...I...um...I lost."

"...Oh." Now she wished that she could take back the question. "Sorry."

"It's okay." She shrugged. "It's kind of depressing though...I've never lost in my first fight."

She bit her lower lip thinking of something to say. "So why do you think you lost?" She had never been very good at consoling people. "I'm sorry." She said before Xiaoyu could answer.

She didn't seem to take offence. "Don't worry about it...I just had other things on my mind...I guess." Something was wrong, that she could sense, but she didn't want to be nosey. "Have you seen Jin at all today?" Xiaoyu asked. "I was...He..." She sighed. "Never mind."

"...Uh...No." She suddenly realized something. _Jin_. If Lee truly was her father it would mean that Jin was her cousin.

"What?" Xiaoyu asked bringing her back to reality.

"Huh?"

"You were smiling."

"I was?" The expression on Xiaoyu's face made her stop, the few times that she had seen her she was always smiling and bubbly. "Is everything all right between you and Jin?" She might as well ask.

"Jin?" Xiaoyu's expression suddenly turned sour. "Why Jin?"

"...I...Uh..."

"And even if it was Jin, why wouldn't everything be all right?" Xiaoyu asked defensively.

"Sorry...um...Do you know where Jin is staying?"

"At the Fuji Inn."

"Oh."

"...Sorry." Xiaoyu sighed. "I'm not usually so witchy, I shouldn't have acted like that."

Amaya shrugged. "It's all right. I'm kinda tired so I better go."

"Okay, good night." Xiaoyu half smiled as she stepped into her room.

There was definitely something wrong, she hoped that it wasn't serious. Since she had to tell Jin that there was a possibility that they might be cousins...she might as well try to see if he knew anything.

Jin was startled by the sound of knocking on his door. What if it was Xiaoyu? He couldn't face her after what had happened the night before. He stood up from his bed and slowly made his way to the door, careful not to be heard. As he peered through the tiny hole on the door he was relieved to see Amaya standing at the other side. What could she be doing there so late? Thinking that it was probably something important he opened the door.

"Hi, sorry to bother you at this hour." Amaya said as he opened the door.

"No problem, come in." He stepped aside to let her in, once she went inside he closed and locked the door. _That wench should not be in here_. Devil hissed. "Is everything all right?" Jin asked doing his best to ignore Devil.

"Sure." Amaya smiled. "It's just that it's been a weird day and I wanted to come tell you about it." She walked up to the television set and began to draw an invisible pattern on top of it with her finger. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not."

"...Other than your...father and grandfather and Lee..." He was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable with the subject. "...Do you have any other relatives?" She finished looking a bit apprehensive.

_It is not her business_, Devil said. "I don't." Jin wanted to ask her why she had asked such an odd question, but before he could she asked something even stranger.

"How would you feel if you found that you did have another relative?"

How would he feel? That was not something that he had ever thought about. "...I...I don't know." He searched his mind for an answer. "...I guess it would depend on who the person was."

She turned to fully face him, opened her mouth to speak then closed it. Taking a deep breath she tried again. "...Guess what I found out today..."

She told him of the day's discovery, the fact that it was very possible that she were Lee's daughter. Jin felt very exited about the news, his only living relatives either had never spoken to him or were crazy and/or trying to kill him. Amaya was none of the latter two and she seemed to like him. It was very good news to hear that he was related to someone who was normal.

"...So what do you think?" Amaya asked once she had finished speaking.

Jin looked at her for a moment. "...I think it's great." He hoped that he had sounded sincere, he truly was.

"It's not definite yet." Amaya reminded him. "We still need the test results...And even then, we'd only be cousins by law."

"But we'd still be cousins." Jin smiled.

"I'm glad you see it that way." She stood up from her chair and began to pace the room. "It's too bad that Xiaoyu lost the fight today," She slowly turned to look at him. "She seemed...distracted...don't you think?"

Had Xiaoyu told her something? "...I guess." Why was she saying that all of the sudden?

"I wonder by what." Jin shrugged. No, Xiaoyu had definitely not said anything; if she had Amaya wouldn't be in his room right now. "She seemed sad when we talked."

"Why would I know what's making her sad? It probably has to do with her boyfriend or something else, not with me." He couldn't tell her, he couldn't tell anyone. She would be scared of him just like Xiao had been and he would never see her again.

Amaya sighed. "Jin, you seem sad too."

"I do?" He had not meant to look sad, he always tried to conceal what he was feeling.

"You always look sad, even when you smile...I don't know why that is, but...maybe you could tell me? Whatever it is, I could try to help or at least give you some advice."

Jin could do nothing but stare at her, he didn't know what to say. He wanted to tell her everything...but he couldn't. She wouldn't understand. "...You can't help me..." He said quietly as he lowered his head.

_Keep her away!_ Devil hissed inside his head.

"I'd like to try to help you." She said taking his hand.

Jin yanked his hand away as he felt a shock of electricity flow through his body. It hurt to touch her...No...It didn't hurt _him_ it hurt Devil, he could feel what he was feeling...physical pain as he touched her. What truly struck him as odd was the fact that Devil was scared, he was so scared that he had even forced Jin back a couple of steps. Devil had never had control of his body when he wasn't transformed, so why had he done it now? Jin looked at Amaya who was staring wide-eyed at her hand, apparently she'd felt it too.

"...I-I have to go." She said shakily and without even giving him a second look she left the room.

_Keep her away!_ Devil yelled inside him again. _Keep her away!_

"Why? Tell me what happened!" But he received no answer. He turned off the lights then collapsed on the bed with his clothes and shoes still on. He was extremely confused and he felt even more alone than before. Not only was Xiaoyu scared of him but now he was sure that Amaya wouldn't even go near him again.

Amaya couldn't explain what had happened, she still felt the electricity pulsating through her hand. Once she entered her room she locked the door and sat on the bed, she noticed that she was breathing very rapidly. After a few deep breaths her breathing had gone back to normal. "What the hell was that?" She uttered quietly.

As she touched Jin she had felt as if something inside her had reached _into_ him. That didn't even make sense. And she had felt how scared he was...but it hadn't really been Jin who was scared. She ran her fingers through her black and purple hair. Of course it had been Jin who was scared...Who else could it have been? They were the only ones in the room.

And what about what she'd _felt_ when she touched him, the electric shock, how could she explain that? She felt so confused, there was no one she could talk to. Perhaps she could tell Hwoarang and— "I have to fight him tomorrow." She suddenly remembered, and as she did she buried her face in her pillow and began to cry.

"Mr. Mishima," Heihachi heard his maid call him from the other side of this bedroom door.

Knowing that it was no doubt something important, for his employees knew better than to disturb him at that hour, he got up from his bed and opened the door. "What is it?"

"There is a telephone call for you, from Dr. Yamamoto." The maid handed him a cordless telephone.

He took it and closed the door to his room, why would his doctor be calling him so late at night? "Yes, doctor?"

"_I'm terribly sorry to bother you this late at night, Mr. Mishima," _Dr. Yamamoto spoke. _"But I have some news that you will no doubt find very interesting."_

"What is it?"

"_It's about your son...or rather your sons." _Heihachi was suddenly very interested. _"I have a friend, Dr. Nakamura, during one of our conversations he commented that Mr. Lee Chaolan had been in his office. He said that he had been accompanied by a young lady, they were trying to see if the young woman is his daughter."_

"And..."

"_Dr. Nakamura, knowing that I am your doctor and that these news may be of value, if you know what I mean, he told Mr. Chaolan that it would take three days to get the test results."_

Heihachi sighed. "Get to the point."

"_Well, the test is done, and it turns out that the young lady is not Mr. Chaolan's daughter."_

"I hope there is more to this story..." Heihachi warned.

"_Of course!" _He said sounding a little frightened. _"While examining the girl's blood I saw something very interesting...it was very similar to something I'd seen in someone else's blood."_

"Whose?"

"_Kazuya." _There was silence for a short moment. _"I remembered from when I used to work with Dr. Abel, it was very similar to...the Devil Gene." _He finished in a very low voice.

"...Is that what it was?"

"_No. It was not. However, feeling curious I compared her DNA to Kazuya's, it turns out that she is his daughter, not Lee's."_

Heihachi smiled. "That is very interesting indeed. What did you find in her blood?"

"_That I don't know yet, like I said it is not the Devil Gene, but it is very similar. I am working to decipher it, but I'm afraid with my limited equipment and insufficient funds..."_

"As of this moment you have full access to my laboratories and my team of scientists." Heihachi said, this could be what he had been waiting for all along, an alternative to the Devil Gene, or perhaps something even more powerful. "I will have someone pick you up in the morning."

"_I am looking forward to it."_

"Who is this girl?"

"_It just so happens that she is one of the fighters from the tournament, her name is Amaya Takahashi."_

"Does she know what the results of the test are yet?"

"_Neither she, nor Lee know anything, they will know at the end of the three days as promised. Of course we won't mention anything about our other findings."_

"Very good, again, I will send someone for you in the morning."

"_Sleep well Mr. Mishima." _Heihachi heard the doctor hang up and he did the same.

Heihachi smiled, something similar to the Devil Gene...Tomorrow promised to be an interesting day, he couldn't wait to meet his granddaughter.

The announcer stepped onto the arena. "Are you ready for one of our most exiting fights yet!" _There she is_, Hwoarang looked at his lovely opponent while cheers erupted all around them.

"Are you hungry for some action!" The announcer continued. _Damn, she looks good today_. Amaya wore black leather pants and a short-sleeved, black top with the words 'Fallen' on the front and 'Angel" on the back; her usually multicolored hair was its normal shade of black. Hwoarang had chosen a sleeveless, white Gi with black trim. His name and the Korean flag were sewn on the back.

"Well if you want action, you got it!" The announcer said enthusiastically, the noise being emitted by the crowd was deafening. _I wonder what she's thinking about_, Hwoarang looked at Amaya again, then shook his head vigorously. He needed to concentrate on winning the fight, what she was thinking didn't matter.

"To my right, in his third appearance at the King of Iron Fist Tournament you know him as the _Blood Talon_...Hwoarang!" _I have to focus this is what she wants_. "And to my left, she's the newcomer who has proven that she has what it takes to play in the big leagues, from our own Japan...Amaya Takahashi!" At that moment Hwoarang tuned out the noise from the crowd, all he needed to hear was the announcer's signal. "I can tell this is going to be a fight to remember, I can see it in their eyes!"

"Fighters ready?" Hwoarang nodded and took his fighting stance. "I said, fighters ready?"

Hwoarang turned impatiently toward the announcer. "I said yes." At that moment he realized that he had not been asking him. He was facing Amaya, who was not yet in her ready stance.

"Did you hear me?" The announcer asked.

Amaya hesitated a moment. "...I forfeit." She said softly.

"You what!" The announcer asked, a shocked expression on his face.

"I forfeit." She said louder and more resolutely, the crowd was deathly still.

The announcer covered his microphone. "But they are here to see an _exiting_ fight." He said in a low voice.

"I don't care."

The announcer took a deep breath and once again spoke into the microphone. "You do realize that by doing so you will be disqualified."

"I know."

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" Hwoarang asked her. Without even looking at him she turned to leave the arena. "Wait!"

Before he could go after her the announcer pulled him back by the wrist. "Our winner...by default..." He held up Hwoarang's hand. "...Hwoarang." He said sounding quite depressed.

Hwoarang didn't wait to hear the reaction from the crowd; he stalked out of the arena, the last thing he had wanted to do was win by default. He could see Amaya practically running toward the exit. A mass of reporters with microphones and cameras tried to stop her but somehow she managed to avoid them all. Hwoarang, however wasn't so lucky. Concentrating on catching up to her he didn't even notice when they had surrounded him.

"Why did Miss Takahashi forfeit?" One of them asked.

"How the hell should I know?" Hwoarang tried to get by them but even more stood in his way.

"Are the rumors true?" Another pushed a microphone in front of his face. "Do you and Miss Takahashi have a secret relationship?"

"What!" He was mad.

"You two were reportedly seen together at various locations before this fight." The reporter stated.

"That is none of your fucking business!" He yelled. "And if you don't get out of my way right now, I will kick_ all _of your sorry asses!" Perhaps they realized that he wanted to be somewhere else...perhaps they realized that he it was very rude to ask questions so personal. Whatever the reason, quietly, quickly they all moved out of his way.

"What have I done?" Amaya wondered once she found herself back in her room. She now realized that forfeiting had been a big, big mistake; Hwoarang would probably come very soon and start asking questions. What would she do? What would she say? Her head began to ache and she started to breathe very rapidly. "Oh, my god." She gasped. "I'm going to hyperventilate." With everything that had happened to her during the last few days she was surprised that it had not happened sooner._ Take a deep breath and slowly exhale_, she remembered the words of her doctor back in Kobe. She tried it, but it wasn't working, that of course made her panic even more. She fell to her knees and began frantically looking under her bed, her breathing becoming more agitated.

Not finding what she was looking for she crawled away from the bed and made her way to the couch. There she saw a small paper bag, which had once contained a pack of gum and a drink that she had bought. Positioning said bag so that it would cover her mouth and nose she began to breath into it, gradually her breathing slowed. Still sitting on the floor she leaned on the couch and slowly moved the bag away from her face.

"Open the damn door!" Just as she had feared she heard Hwoarang's voice accompanied by a loud pounding. Eyes widened she once again started to breathe into the bag. "I know you're in there!"

She couldn't let him see her like that. _Think positive, Amaya_, she once again heard her doctor's voice. _Everything always works out. _"Everything always works out." She said as she removed the bag and began to take slow, deep breaths.

"I swear if you don't open the door, I'll break it down!" She knew he would. "Shut up you old hag, I don't care if you're trying to sleep!" He was shouting at a hotel guest, no doubt. "I'm going to count to three, and if you haven't opened it by then, I'll break it down!" She couldn't afford to have a door charged to her account. "One...two..."

"Wait, I'll open it...um..." She breathed into the bag. "...I'm..." She breathed once more. "...Not..." Breath. "...Dressed..." Breath. "...Yet." Breath.

"Well you better..."

She tuned out whatever else he said and concentrated on her breathing. _Count backward starting at ten_...Her doctor's voice rang in her head again, she began to count. By the time she was at two she felt that she would be able to face whatever came at her. Feeling a little calmer she dropped the bag, stood up and went to the door and opened it. "What?" She asked calmly, though inside she was shaking.

"What?" He pushed her aside and entered the room "What!" He near shouted. "I want an explanation, that's what!"

"Do you?" _What am I going to do!_

"Look," He pointed his finger at her. "I do _not_ like winning by default!"

"Then why don't you drop out of the tournament and pretend that I kicked your ass?" _Think, Amaya. THINK!_ What the _hell_ was she going to say?

"I _cannot_ believe that you came all the way to Tokyo just to forfeit!"

She crossed her arms. "Maybe I did."_ That was a stupid thing to say._

"Tell me why you did it." He said menacingly.

_Think._ "None of your business."

"Tell me!"

_Think!_ "It is too complicated for your simple male brain to comprehend."

"Just fucking tell me!"

_THINK!_ "No."

"TELL ME!"

"CAN'T YOU GUESS!" There was no point in hiding it any longer.

He looked pensive for about a nanosecond. "...No."

"You can't even take a hint!" This was looking bad.

"...A hint?"

She had _no_ choice, he would _never_ understand if she didn't do _something_. So she did the only thing she _could_do...She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and kissed him, he seemed surprised at first but soon gave in. Amaya broke the kiss and stepped back. "That's why." She said quietly as she looked down at the floor.

"Oh." Hwoarang looked at her for a short moment. "...Why didn't you just say so?"

"Some things are easier done than said." This time it was _he_ who kissed her. For a moment she was happy and everything was perfect, but she soon realized just what she was doing. "Stop!" She yelled taking a step back.

"What's wrong?" Hwoarang looked extremely confused.

"I can't do this!" She said shaking her head, eyes wide.

He sighed. "Why?"

"Because this is stupid!" She was beginning to breathe rapidly again.

"What's stupid?"

"_This_! Me, you, me and you...Everything!" How could she explain it in a way that made sense?

"What?" He asked making a face that once again spelled confusion.

"I don't know what I'm doing..." Amaya sat on the couch slouching her shoulders. "I came here to fight you..." She pointed at him. "...But I forfeited the fight...I ruined my chances of winning..." She shook her head. "I am _so_ stupid..._So_ stupid, I can't go to New York anymore, at least before I had something to show for it but now...And I didn't even lose...I am so stupid."

"I guess you're kinda like a lava lamp." Hwoarang said bringing her back to reality.

"...A lava lamp?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Yeah, fun to look at, but not very bright."

She looked down at the floor, he was right...She suddenly sat up, what right did _he_ have to say something like that? "I cannot believe that you—"

"It was just a joke!" He said holding up his hands. "Just trying to lighten up the situation."

It wasn't her fault, Amaya realized, all along it had been... "This is all _your_ fault." She said accusingly. "All this has happened because of _you_." She stood up and began to advance toward him. "I came here because of you, and I forfeited because of _you_."

"I didn't ask you to."

"But it is still your fault!"

"That's crazy!"

"Go away." She said firmly.

"Why?"

She walked past him and opened the door. "Leave."

"You are the most difficult bitch I have ever met." He said as he exited and slammed the door behind him.

She stood in the same position by the door for about thirty seconds. "...I threw him out." Amaya finally said. She had entered the tournament for an extremely petty reason, she had forfeited the fight and now she had kicked him out for no reason, without even thinking twice about it. She was like a lava lamp, she decided, that had been huge mistake number three in the span of two short weeks.


	18. Easier Done than Said

Chapter 17

(Easier Done than Said)

"_Take this confusion_

_runnin' round my head_

_take back my unkind words_

_lay that weight on me instead..."_

–Rob Thomas (I Am an Illusion)

Amaya stepped off the elevator and stuffing the envelope into her pocket began to walk toward her room. About three doors down from where she was standing she saw Xiaoyu about to go into her room. Apparently seeing her she stopped just as she was about to go in.

"Hey." Amaya said stopping in front of her.

"Hi." Xiaoyu gave her a sort of smile.

"Did you get the match-up call?" Amaya wanted to know.

Xiaoyu looked down at the floor. "No...I...um...I lost."

"...Oh." Now she wished that she could take back the question. "Sorry."

"It's okay." She shrugged. "It's kind of depressing though...I've never lost in my first fight."

She bit her lower lip thinking of something to say. "So why do you think you lost?" She had never been very good at consoling people. "I'm sorry." She said before Xiaoyu could answer.

She didn't seem to take offence. "Don't worry about it...I just had other things on my mind...I guess." Something was wrong, that she could sense, but she didn't want to be nosey. "Have you seen Jin at all today?" Xiaoyu asked. "I was...He..." She sighed. "Never mind."

"...Uh...No." She suddenly realized something. _Jin_. If Lee truly was her father it would mean that Jin was her cousin.

"What?" Xiaoyu asked bringing her back to reality.

"Huh?"

"You were smiling."

"I was?" The expression on Xiaoyu's face made her stop, the few times that she had seen her she was always smiling and bubbly. "Is everything all right between you and Jin?" She might as well ask.

"Jin?" Xiaoyu's expression suddenly turned sour. "Why Jin?"

"...I...Uh..."

"And even if it was Jin, why wouldn't everything be all right?" Xiaoyu asked defensively.

"Sorry...um...Do you know where Jin is staying?"

"At the Fuji Inn."

"Oh."

"...Sorry." Xiaoyu sighed. "I'm not usually so witchy, I shouldn't have acted like that."

Amaya shrugged. "It's all right. I'm kinda tired so I better go."

"Okay, good night." Xiaoyu half smiled as she stepped into her room.

There was definitely something wrong, she hoped that it wasn't serious. Since she had to tell Jin that there was a possibility that they might be cousins...she might as well try to see if he knew anything.

Jin was startled by the sound of knocking on his door. What if it was Xiaoyu? He couldn't face her after what had happened the night before. He stood up from his bed and slowly made his way to the door, careful not to be heard. As he peered through the tiny hole on the door he was relieved to see Amaya standing at the other side. What could she be doing there so late? Thinking that it was probably something important he opened the door.

"Hi, sorry to bother you at this hour." Amaya said as he opened the door.

"No problem, come in." He stepped aside to let her in, once she went inside he closed and locked the door. _That wench should not be in here_. Devil hissed. "Is everything all right?" Jin asked doing his best to ignore Devil.

"Sure." Amaya smiled. "It's just that it's been a weird day and I wanted to come tell you about it." She walked up to the television set and began to draw an invisible pattern on top of it with her finger. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not."

"...Other than your...father and grandfather and Lee..." He was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable with the subject. "...Do you have any other relatives?" She finished looking a bit apprehensive.

_It is not her business_, Devil said. "I don't." Jin wanted to ask her why she had asked such an odd question, but before he could she asked something even stranger.

"How would you feel if you found that you did have another relative?"

How would he feel? That was not something that he had ever thought about. "...I...I don't know." He searched his mind for an answer. "...I guess it would depend on who the person was."

She turned to fully face him, opened her mouth to speak then closed it. Taking a deep breath she tried again. "...Guess what I found out today..."

She told him of the day's discovery, the fact that it was very possible that she were Lee's daughter. Jin felt very exited about the news, his only living relatives either had never spoken to him or were crazy and/or trying to kill him. Amaya was none of the latter two and she seemed to like him. It was very good news to hear that he was related to someone who was normal.

"...So what do you think?" Amaya asked once she had finished speaking.

Jin looked at her for a moment. "...I think it's great." He hoped that he had sounded sincere, he truly was.

"It's not definite yet." Amaya reminded him. "We still need the test results...And even then, we'd only be cousins by law."

"But we'd still be cousins." Jin smiled.

"I'm glad you see it that way." She stood up from her chair and began to pace the room. "It's too bad that Xiaoyu lost the fight today," She slowly turned to look at him. "She seemed...distracted...don't you think?"

Had Xiaoyu told her something? "...I guess." Why was she saying that all of the sudden?

"I wonder by what." Jin shrugged. No, Xiaoyu had definitely not said anything; if she had Amaya wouldn't be in his room right now. "She seemed sad when we talked."

"Why would I know what's making her sad? It probably has to do with her boyfriend or something else, not with me." He couldn't tell her, he couldn't tell anyone. She would be scared of him just like Xiao had been and he would never see her again.

Amaya sighed. "Jin, you seem sad too."

"I do?" He had not meant to look sad, he always tried to conceal what he was feeling.

"You always look sad, even when you smile...I don't know why that is, but...maybe you could tell me? Whatever it is, I could try to help or at least give you some advice."

Jin could do nothing but stare at her, he didn't know what to say. He wanted to tell her everything...but he couldn't. She wouldn't understand. "...You can't help me..." He said quietly as he lowered his head.

_Keep her away!_ Devil hissed inside his head.

"I'd like to try to help you." She said taking his hand.

Jin yanked his hand away as he felt a shock of electricity flow through his body. It hurt to touch her...No...It didn't hurt _him_ it hurt Devil, he could feel what he was feeling...physical pain as he touched her. What truly struck him as odd was the fact that Devil was scared, he was so scared that he had even forced Jin back a couple of steps. Devil had never had control of his body when he wasn't transformed, so why had he done it now? Jin looked at Amaya who was staring wide-eyed at her hand, apparently she'd felt it too.

"...I-I have to go." She said shakily and without even giving him a second look she left the room.

_Keep her away!_ Devil yelled inside him again. _Keep her away!_

"Why? Tell me what happened!" But he received no answer. He turned off the lights then collapsed on the bed with his clothes and shoes still on. He was extremely confused and he felt even more alone than before. Not only was Xiaoyu scared of him but now he was sure that Amaya wouldn't even go near him again.

Amaya couldn't explain what had happened, she still felt the electricity pulsating through her hand. Once she entered her room she locked the door and sat on the bed, she noticed that she was breathing very rapidly. After a few deep breaths her breathing had gone back to normal. "What the hell was that?" She uttered quietly.

As she touched Jin she had felt as if something inside her had reached _into_ him. That didn't even make sense. And she had felt how scared he was...but it hadn't really been Jin who was scared. She ran her fingers through her black and purple hair. Of course it had been Jin who was scared...Who else could it have been? They were the only ones in the room.

And what about what she'd _felt_ when she touched him, the electric shock, how could she explain that? She felt so confused, there was no one she could talk to. Perhaps she could tell Hwoarang and— "I have to fight him tomorrow." She suddenly remembered, and as she did she buried her face in her pillow and began to cry.

"Mr. Mishima," Heihachi heard his maid call him from the other side of this bedroom door.

Knowing that it was no doubt something important, for his employees knew better than to disturb him at that hour, he got up from his bed and opened the door. "What is it?"

"There is a telephone call for you, from Dr. Yamamoto." The maid handed him a cordless telephone.

He took it and closed the door to his room, why would his doctor be calling him so late at night? "Yes, doctor?"

"_I'm terribly sorry to bother you this late at night, Mr. Mishima," _Dr. Yamamoto spoke. _"But I have some news that you will no doubt find very interesting."_

"What is it?"

"_It's about your son...or rather your sons." _Heihachi was suddenly very interested. _"I have a friend, Dr. Nakamura, during one of our conversations he commented that Mr. Lee Chaolan had been in his office. He said that he had been accompanied by a young lady, they were trying to see if the young woman is his daughter."_

"And..."

"_Dr. Nakamura, knowing that I am your doctor and that these news may be of value, if you know what I mean, he told Mr. Chaolan that it would take three days to get the test results."_

Heihachi sighed. "Get to the point."

"_Well, the test is done, and it turns out that the young lady is not Mr. Chaolan's daughter."_

"I hope there is more to this story..." Heihachi warned.

"_Of course!" _He said sounding a little frightened. _"While examining the girl's blood I saw something very interesting...it was very similar to something I'd seen in someone else's blood."_

"Whose?"

"_Kazuya." _There was silence for a short moment. _"I remembered from when I used to work with Dr. Abel, it was very similar to...the Devil Gene." _He finished in a very low voice.

"...Is that what it was?"

"_No. It was not. However, feeling curious I compared her DNA to Kazuya's, it turns out that she is his daughter, not Lee's."_

Heihachi smiled. "That is very interesting indeed. What did you find in her blood?"

"_That I don't know yet, like I said it is not the Devil Gene, but it is very similar. I am working to decipher it, but I'm afraid with my limited equipment and insufficient funds..."_

"As of this moment you have full access to my laboratories and my team of scientists." Heihachi said, this could be what he had been waiting for all along, an alternative to the Devil Gene, or perhaps something even more powerful. "I will have someone pick you up in the morning."

"_I am looking forward to it."_

"Who is this girl?"

"_It just so happens that she is one of the fighters from the tournament, her name is Amaya Takahashi."_

"Does she know what the results of the test are yet?"

"_Neither she, nor Lee know anything, they will know at the end of the three days as promised. Of course we won't mention anything about our other findings."_

"Very good, again, I will send someone for you in the morning."

"_Sleep well Mr. Mishima." _Heihachi heard the doctor hang up and he did the same.

Heihachi smiled, something similar to the Devil Gene...Tomorrow promised to be an interesting day, he couldn't wait to meet his granddaughter.

The announcer stepped onto the arena. "Are you ready for one of our most exiting fights yet!" _There she is_, Hwoarang looked at his lovely opponent while cheers erupted all around them.

"Are you hungry for some action!" The announcer continued. _Damn, she looks good today_. Amaya wore black leather pants and a short-sleeved, black top with the words 'Fallen' on the front and 'Angel" on the back; her usually multicolored hair was its normal shade of black. Hwoarang had chosen a sleeveless, white Gi with black trim. His name and the Korean flag were sewn on the back.

"Well if you want action, you got it!" The announcer said enthusiastically, the noise being emitted by the crowd was deafening. _I wonder what she's thinking about_, Hwoarang looked at Amaya again, then shook his head vigorously. He needed to concentrate on winning the fight, what she was thinking didn't matter.

"To my right, in his third appearance at the King of Iron Fist Tournament you know him as the _Blood Talon_...Hwoarang!" _I have to focus this is what she wants_. "And to my left, she's the newcomer who has proven that she has what it takes to play in the big leagues, from our own Japan...Amaya Takahashi!" At that moment Hwoarang tuned out the noise from the crowd, all he needed to hear was the announcer's signal. "I can tell this is going to be a fight to remember, I can see it in their eyes!"

"Fighters ready?" Hwoarang nodded and took his fighting stance. "I said, fighters ready?"

Hwoarang turned impatiently toward the announcer. "I said yes." At that moment he realized that he had not been asking him. He was facing Amaya, who was not yet in her ready stance.

"Did you hear me?" The announcer asked.

Amaya hesitated a moment. "...I forfeit." She said softly.

"You what!" The announcer asked, a shocked expression on his face.

"I forfeit." She said louder and more resolutely, the crowd was deathly still.

The announcer covered his microphone. "But they are here to see an _exiting_ fight." He said in a low voice.

"I don't care."

The announcer took a deep breath and once again spoke into the microphone. "You do realize that by doing so you will be disqualified."

"I know."

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" Hwoarang asked her. Without even looking at him she turned to leave the arena. "Wait!"

Before he could go after her the announcer pulled him back by the wrist. "Our winner...by default..." He held up Hwoarang's hand. "...Hwoarang." He said sounding quite depressed.

Hwoarang didn't wait to hear the reaction from the crowd; he stalked out of the arena, the last thing he had wanted to do was win by default. He could see Amaya practically running toward the exit. A mass of reporters with microphones and cameras tried to stop her but somehow she managed to avoid them all. Hwoarang, however wasn't so lucky. Concentrating on catching up to her he didn't even notice when they had surrounded him.

"Why did Miss Takahashi forfeit?" One of them asked.

"How the hell should I know?" Hwoarang tried to get by them but even more stood in his way.

"Are the rumors true?" Another pushed a microphone in front of his face. "Do you and Miss Takahashi have a secret relationship?"

"What!" He was mad.

"You two were reportedly seen together at various locations before this fight." The reporter stated.

"That is none of your fucking business!" He yelled. "And if you don't get out of my way right now, I will kick_ all _of your sorry asses!" Perhaps they realized that he wanted to be somewhere else...perhaps they realized that he it was very rude to ask questions so personal. Whatever the reason, quietly, quickly they all moved out of his way.

"What have I done?" Amaya wondered once she found herself back in her room. She now realized that forfeiting had been a big, big mistake; Hwoarang would probably come very soon and start asking questions. What would she do? What would she say? Her head began to ache and she started to breathe very rapidly. "Oh, my god." She gasped. "I'm going to hyperventilate." With everything that had happened to her during the last few days she was surprised that it had not happened sooner._ Take a deep breath and slowly exhale_, she remembered the words of her doctor back in Kobe. She tried it, but it wasn't working, that of course made her panic even more. She fell to her knees and began frantically looking under her bed, her breathing becoming more agitated.

Not finding what she was looking for she crawled away from the bed and made her way to the couch. There she saw a small paper bag, which had once contained a pack of gum and a drink that she had bought. Positioning said bag so that it would cover her mouth and nose she began to breath into it, gradually her breathing slowed. Still sitting on the floor she leaned on the couch and slowly moved the bag away from her face.

"Open the damn door!" Just as she had feared she heard Hwoarang's voice accompanied by a loud pounding. Eyes widened she once again started to breathe into the bag. "I know you're in there!"

She couldn't let him see her like that. _Think positive, Amaya_, she once again heard her doctor's voice. _Everything always works out. _"Everything always works out." She said as she removed the bag and began to take slow, deep breaths.

"I swear if you don't open the door, I'll break it down!" She knew he would. "Shut up you old hag, I don't care if you're trying to sleep!" He was shouting at a hotel guest, no doubt. "I'm going to count to three, and if you haven't opened it by then, I'll break it down!" She couldn't afford to have a door charged to her account. "One...two..."

"Wait, I'll open it...um..." She breathed into the bag. "...I'm..." She breathed once more. "...Not..." Breath. "...Dressed..." Breath. "...Yet." Breath.

"Well you better..."

She tuned out whatever else he said and concentrated on her breathing. _Count backward starting at ten_...Her doctor's voice rang in her head again, she began to count. By the time she was at two she felt that she would be able to face whatever came at her. Feeling a little calmer she dropped the bag, stood up and went to the door and opened it. "What?" She asked calmly, though inside she was shaking.

"What?" He pushed her aside and entered the room "What!" He near shouted. "I want an explanation, that's what!"

"Do you?" _What am I going to do!_

"Look," He pointed his finger at her. "I do _not_ like winning by default!"

"Then why don't you drop out of the tournament and pretend that I kicked your ass?" _Think, Amaya. THINK!_ What the _hell_ was she going to say?

"I _cannot_ believe that you came all the way to Tokyo just to forfeit!"

She crossed her arms. "Maybe I did."_ That was a stupid thing to say._

"Tell me why you did it." He said menacingly.

_Think._ "None of your business."

"Tell me!"

_Think!_ "It is too complicated for your simple male brain to comprehend."

"Just fucking tell me!"

_THINK!_ "No."

"TELL ME!"

"CAN'T YOU GUESS!" There was no point in hiding it any longer.

He looked pensive for about a nanosecond. "...No."

"You can't even take a hint!" This was looking bad.

"...A hint?"

She had _no_ choice, he would _never_ understand if she didn't do _something_. So she did the only thing she _could_do...She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and kissed him, he seemed surprised at first but soon gave in. Amaya broke the kiss and stepped back. "That's why." She said quietly as she looked down at the floor.

"Oh." Hwoarang looked at her for a short moment. "...Why didn't you just say so?"

"Some things are easier done than said." This time it was _he_ who kissed her. For a moment she was happy and everything was perfect, but she soon realized just what she was doing. "Stop!" She yelled taking a step back.

"What's wrong?" Hwoarang looked extremely confused.

"I can't do this!" She said shaking her head, eyes wide.

He sighed. "Why?"

"Because this is stupid!" She was beginning to breathe rapidly again.

"What's stupid?"

"_This_! Me, you, me and you...Everything!" How could she explain it in a way that made sense?

"What?" He asked making a face that once again spelled confusion.

"I don't know what I'm doing..." Amaya sat on the couch slouching her shoulders. "I came here to fight you..." She pointed at him. "...But I forfeited the fight...I ruined my chances of winning..." She shook her head. "I am _so_ stupid..._So_ stupid, I can't go to New York anymore, at least before I had something to show for it but now...And I didn't even lose...I am so stupid."

"I guess you're kinda like a lava lamp." Hwoarang said bringing her back to reality.

"...A lava lamp?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Yeah, fun to look at, but not very bright."

She looked down at the floor, he was right...She suddenly sat up, what right did _he_ have to say something like that? "I cannot believe that you—"

"It was just a joke!" He said holding up his hands. "Just trying to lighten up the situation."

It wasn't her fault, Amaya realized, all along it had been... "This is all _your_ fault." She said accusingly. "All this has happened because of _you_." She stood up and began to advance toward him. "I came here because of you, and I forfeited because of _you_."

"I didn't ask you to."

"But it is still your fault!"

"That's crazy!"

"Go away." She said firmly.

"Why?"

She walked past him and opened the door. "Leave."

"You are the most difficult bitch I have ever met." He said as he exited and slammed the door behind him.

She stood in the same position by the door for about thirty seconds. "...I threw him out." Amaya finally said. She had entered the tournament for an extremely petty reason, she had forfeited the fight and now she had kicked him out for no reason, without even thinking twice about it. She was like a lava lamp, she decided, that had been huge mistake number three in the span of two short weeks.


	19. Mistakes

Chapter 18

(Mistakes)

"_This will all fall down_

_Like everything else that was_

_This too shall pass and all of the words we said_

_We can't take back."_

Matchbox Twenty (Last Beautiful Girl )

It neared eleven p.m. Amaya sat on the edge of her bed staring blankly at the TV screen. Why was she always so impulsive? She had been asking herself that question ever since Hwoarang had left her room. He had been right, she _was_ difficult and she _was_ a bitch. That was probably the reason why she had never had a meaningful relationship...Save for the detective that she had almost married, but that too had ended because of her stupidity. In the midst of her misery her thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock on her door.

She hastily stood to open it, hoping with all her heart that it wasn't Hwoarang she reluctantly opened it. To her surprise she found two Japanese men dressed in dark suits standing in the hallway.

"We have a message from Mr. Heihachi Mishima." The younger of the two said.

"What is it?"

"He wishes to see you in his hotel office immediately."

She raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

The older man answered. "He said it was regarding your decision at the tournament."

"Oh." She hoped that he wasn't going to throw her out of the hotel at that hour, though he probably had the right to do so if the participants forfeited.

"Please follow us." The men turned on their heels and began walking down the hall, Amaya closed her door and followed after them.

A few minutes later she was standing in front of Heihachi Mishima, her two _escorts_ had stationed themselves on either of him. She had not thought about it before, but now that she saw him she realized that he was very possibly her grandfather. She was not about to mention anything though, something told her that she probably didn't want him as a grandfather.

"Welcome Miss Takahashi. Please," He motioned to the chair in front of his desk. "Have a seat."

"No thank you." Amaya folded her arms under her chest. "I'd rather stand."

"Mr. Mishima asked you to sit." The man on the right of him said menacingly.

She immediately realized that it was probably about more than her stay at the hotel. "I think I'd rather stand." She said firmly. That had probably not been the best answer considering her situation, but she was close to the door and was confident that she could take the two bodyguards..._Damn it, why do I always put myself in these situations?_

"That is quite all right Miss Takahashi, you may stand if you prefer." Heihachi turned to the man on his right. "You may both wait outside." They both obeyed without hesitation and were outside before Amaya had time to say anything.

"And just what is this _conversation _going to be about?"

"Your forfeit, and what we are going to do about it."

"What is there to do about it?"

"That was a foolish reason to forfeit." He said ignoring her question. "I was quite disappointed to see someone with your skill make such a foolish choice."

Had it been that obvious? "How do you know why I did it?"

"It is obvious. All the rumors about you and that boy, and you decide to forfeit precisely when you had to fight _him_."

"Oh."

"But I am willing to give you an opportunity to continue fighting in the tournament."

"...What?" That had been the last thing that she expected to hear. "...Why?"

"Money."

"I don't understand."

"A lot of money goes into an event of this magnitude," Heihachi began. "During every fight we get some of it back. We make this money through sold merchandise, tickets and gambling among many other things. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

Though she did understand what he was talking about she had no idea what it had to do with her. "...Not really..."

"This tournament is being held in Japan."

"I think I'm aware of that." Amaya did not like being patronized, not knowing what the earnings of the tournament had to do with her didn't make her an idiot.

"Excluding myself there are only three other Japanese fighters." Heihachi continued ignoring her comment. "The amount of money that comes in is doubled when we have a Japanese fighter in the arena. Japanese spectators want to see people from their own country fight and win."

"So when a Japanese fighter is in the arena more people come tho see the fight and that is how you make more money." Now she understood what he was trying to tell her.

"Yes."

"So that means that I made you more money."

"No."

She was again completely confused. "But you just said-"

"As I recall," Heihachi crossed his arms. "You forfeited. People were not happy."

"...Why?"

"They paid money to see a fight, not just a fight, but a fight that would be _unforgettable_. Do you know what happened when they _didn't_ see a fight?" Amaya shook her head slowly. "They asked for their money back, every single one of them."

Her day just kept getting better and better. "...Oh." She said sheepishly as she subconsciously sat on the chair she had been offered earlier.

"That is why, as I said, I would like to offer you the opportunity to continue in the tournament."

"That would be cheating."

Heihachi smiled. "That is not cheating, I do not want or expect you to cheat, I merely expect you to fight to the best of your ability and lose only when or if you fight someone of greater skill."

"But I signed the contract," It didn't seem right. "And it clearly states that once a fighter forfeits-"

Heihachi stood from his chair and picked up a piece of paper that was resting before him. He walked up to Amaya and showed her the paper, it was the contract with her signature at the bottom. "_I_ make the rules." He said as he tore the paper in two and let the pieces fall.

Amaya watched as they landed softly on the carpeted floor. "...I don't know..."

"My dear Amaya...Do you mind if I address you as such?" She shrugged. "Think of this as a favor to me _and_ you."

"How would it benefit me?"

"I am sure that you sacrificed something to enter the tournament, money, time...Something."

_A possible future in New York, _she thought bitterly. "I still don't know if doing this is such a good idea."

"Are you trying to tell me that you sacrificed _nothing_ to come here." She was quiet. "Have you ever received the proper recognition for anything that you have done?"

_Never._ She kept quiet.

"Then this is perhaps your one and only opportunity, don't let it go to waste...Let your sacrifices mean something."

He was right, what had she been thinking? She had made her biggest mistake yet and he was giving her an opportunity to fix it. "...All right."

"You have made the right choice, _trust me_." Heihachi walked back to his chair and sat down. "You will fight King at eleven a.m. tomorrow."

"You already had my fight scheduled?"

"I knew you would accept."

"How did you-"

"That is all, I suggest you go get some rest, it is quite late."

His tone made it clear that he was not going to answer anything she asked. Normally she would not have settled for that, but she was tired and wanted to go back to her room. Without saying another word she stood up and made her way to the door.

"She reminds me of her father." Heihachi said softly as he watched her walk away. It wasn't her features that reminded him of Kazuya, it was her air of arrogance, the way she crossed her arms...He despised it.

At first he had debated weather to assign her to fight someone who he knew she could beat, for he was almost certain that she would be no match for King. In the end he had decided that having her fight him would be for the best, his goal was not to help her win the tournament but to see what she would do when she reached her limit. He wanted to see if that strange gene would help her survive. He had seen it with Jin four years earlier, he had seen how he survived a direct bullet to the head. If that gene inside his granddaughter was anything that he could use she would win that fight. If the fight didn't prove helpful to his research...There were always _other_ ways.

Lee felt like a new person, he couldn't remember the last time that he had woken up excited about the new day. He knew the reason why he was feeling that way, his daughter. Finding her after so many years had been nothing short of a miracle.

Being only six a.m. Valerie still slept, he carefully left the bed not wanting to wake her then sat in front of his laptop. He was curious to see who would be fighting who, he especially wanted to know about Jin, his nephew. He didn't know why but he during the past two days he had been wondering if he needed help or advice or something. Lee was almost sure that Jin was in need of at least one of those things; the poor boy had Kazuya as his father after all. He credited his new-found interest in his nephew to his paternal side reemerging after so long.

He was now at the tournament home page where the schedule for the day was posted. He did a double take when he saw the list, Amaya was scheduled to fight King at 11:00 a.m. He knew there had to be a mistake, she had forfeited, that meant that she was disqualified...Unless.._.Heihachi_...

He suddenly felt more afraid than he had in over twenty years. Heihachi knew. He knew that she was his daughter and was planning to...To what? To hurt her? Was he using Amaya to get to him? That was very possible, but it could also be a mistake, perhaps it was a misprint. The only way to find out was to ask Amaya.

A short while later Lee was standing in front of her door, as it opened a sleepy-looking Amaya emerged. She was wearing a black tank top and gray pajama bottoms, as she moved to let Lee inside she attempted to smooth down her hair.

"What's wrong?" She asked as she closed the door.

"I was hoping you could tell me." She gave Lee a confused look. "Yesterday you were disqualified from the tournament, yet you are scheduled to fight today, is that a mistake?"

She suddenly seemed more alert. "Oh...Um...No." She tucked her hair behind her ears than looked at Lee. "I'm back in the tournament."

"Why?" He was surprised to hear his voice bit louder than he intended.

She looked a bit taken aback. "Mr. Mishima and I came to an agreement."

"What did he promise you?" Lee questioned.

"Nothing." He could tell by her expression that she was becoming a bit irritated.

He decided to try a different approach. "I'm just concerned...Can you tell me what the agreement was?"

She sat on the edge of the bed, her expression easing somewhat. "He's letting me back in the tournament so that he can get his money back."

He took a step forward. "What money?"

"All the money he had to give back in ticket sales when I forfeited the fight."

Lee shook his head. "...Manipulative bastard...You can't continue."

Amaya folded her arms under her chest. "What do you mean I _can't_ continue?"

"It's obvious that he's planning something." She gave him a look that was a cross between anger and confusion. "You can't put yourself in danger to do a favor for someone that you don't even know. He doesn't need the money that was lost, he has so much of it that it doesn't make a difference weather he makes or loses any in this tournament."

She stood up. "It's about more than his money." She said looking him in the eye.

"It's a mistake. I'm sure he's just luring you into a trap."

Amaya threw her arms in the air. "You are just paranoid! Just because you couldn't get along with you father you think he's out to get everyone?"

Lee was trying his best to remain calm. "It's more than that, I know him, you don't. He is not what he seems he is an evil and calculating man, he disowned me and tried to kill my brother, his biological son. That is why I _know_ that he is planning something with you."

"What?" Amaya asked exasperated.

"I don't know." He admitted.

She sighed. "...I _want_ to continue in the tournament. I made a huge mistake by forfeiting, it's time and money wasted...Not to mention my chance to go to New York."

"You don't have to fight, I can pay for you to go to New York, I can pay for you to _live_ in New York."

Judging by the look on her face that was probably the worst thing he could have suggested. "...You're offering me _money_?" She asked incredulously.

Lee closed his eyes. "That's not what I meant."

"Where was your money and your _fatherly_ advice when I needed it? Where were _you _and your money when I was hungry and cold? When I didn't have enough to make the rent and got kicked out into the street and into the rain?" At that moment he wished he could turn back time if only a few seconds. "I made it through those times without you and without your money, what makes you think that I will need it now that I'm a capable adult with a job and a nice apartment? I hope you don't think that trying to buy my safety makes you a father after more than twenty years of absence...It doesn't."

Lee couldn't look at her, everything she said had been true. If she made it without him then, she could overcome whatever challenges she faced now. He didn't know how to be a father, that had been made painfully obvious. He had done and said all the wrong things and now...She hated him. Knowing that there was nothing he could do to convince her he exited the room, an immense sense of failure weighing him down.

When Hwoarang opened his door he was surprised to find Amaya standing on the other side, barefoot and still wearing her pajamas.

"...Did I wake you?" She asked after a short moment of silence.

"No, I've been up for a while." Saying nothing she entered his room and sat on the couch. "...Did you need something?" He inquired as he closed the door.

Amaya shook her head, they were silent again until she spoke. "...Sometimes I think that my mouth has a mind of its own." She said simply. "And I'm so impulsive that sometimes I think I'm a danger to society." Feeling somewhat confused by the purpose of her visit and by what she was saying Hwoarang thought it would be better to just sit down and listen. He took a seat by her, she continued. "I feel that I should be on a leash, like a dog...No..." She shook her head slowly. "...Like a bitch." She turned to him. "I probably _am_ the most difficult bitch you have ever met."

There were many, many things that he could have said, however he decided that it was probably best to keep quiet and let her continue. "I always act before I think, when I turned eighteen I got a job as a stripper..."

He was too shocked to stay quiet. "You what! Why!"

She shrugged. "It was the first place that wanted to hire me, I could have kept looking but...I went in to be a waitress but the owner told me how much more money I would make if I stripped. I didn't think of the consequences when started working there. It was a _local_ strip club, one day one of my college professors went in, he kept quiet but...A few weeks later two guys from my college went to see the 'show' and it wasn't long before I was known as the local slut. I really should have given it more thought before working there. I only worked there for a while though, until I discovered how much money I could make in street fights."

"...We all make big mistakes at one time or another." Hwoarang said hoping to make her feel better.

"Well yeah, one or two in a lifetime, but I'm only twenty-three and how many have I made? Two years ago I met a guy who was more than fifteen years older than me, he was a police detective. We dated for one month and then he asked me to marry him, what did I do? Did I wait to think it thorough? Did I say to myself 'Amaya this is way too soon? No. I accepted because I'm stupid, two weeks later what happens? The Kobe Police Department decides that they want to crack down on illegal street fights. Being the genius that I am I decide to see if I could be engaged to a man working in law enforcement while doing illegal activities behind his back...A week before our wedding while I'm fighting a guy twice my size the police raid our little gathering and my own fiancé slaps the handcuffs on my wrists while dumping me."

"...Wow..." Hwoarang shook his head. "That really, really sucks."

Amaya sighed. "You have no idea. I was doing better lately, but then I came here and everything went to hell. I forfeited, then I kicked you out without a reason." Hwoarang nodded but said nothing. "Did you see that I'm back in the tournament?"

"What?" He turned to look at her. "How is that possible? You were disqualified."

"Yeah, but Old Man Mishima called me last night to let me back in the tournament."

"Why would he do that?"

"Financial stuff."

"That is really suspicious." He said thoughtfully. "He's Lee Chaolan's father isn't he?"

She sighed. "I'm such an idiot, it _is_ suspicious, everyone can see through it but me! Once again I acted before thinking." She placed a hand on her forehead. "Earlier today Lee came to my room to try to convince me to drop out, telling me that..." She sighed again. "...That it was too suspicious, and guess what I did."

"I'm afraid to ask, but what?"

"I basically told him to fuck off, but of course in a much more hurtful way." She subconsciously laid her head on his shoulder. "Do you think there's any hope for me?"

He smiled. "Probably not."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

Of everything that she had told him only one thing still plagued his mind. "When you stripped...That's _all_ you did...Right?"

"Of course." She said sounding offended.

"No lap dances or..." She gave him a look that clearly said _drop it_. "Fine, sorry." There was a short silence. "...So you were a stripper, but you left that for the noble profession of illegal street fighting." He smiled. "Just the kind of girl a guy wants to take home to mom."

She smiled as well. "You don't have a mom so I'm really not that worried." Her smile slowly faded.

"Well _something_ has you worried."

"A lot of things do, but I was just thinking about Jin..."

"Why?" His name was not something Hwoarang wanted to hear when he was alone with a beautiful woman.

"Our meeting has me worried," She explained. "When I touched him I felt something that I can't explain–"

"What!What were you doing with that son of a bitch!"

Amaya stood up. "Don't call him that," Hwoarang too stood to face her. "We weren't doing anything, don't be gross, he could be my cousin."

"I should go kick his ass right now. Why should I have to wait until we have to fight?"

"Down boy, there is no reason to go looking for a fight. All I did was talk to a man who might be related to me to tell him just that."

"Why did it have to be him?" He shook his head. "Why _him_ of all people?"

"Why do you hate him?" Amaya questioned. "Did he steal your girlfriend or something?"

"I don't know," He crossed his arms. "Did he?"

Amaya smiled. "You mean me?"

"Great." He grumbled. "Whatever."

"Ok, I won't say anything." She said still smiling.

"You said that you touched him." He reminded her.

She rolled her eyes. "You're sick."

"And that you felt _something_."

She sighed. "Yeah something that hurt me, like an electric shock, it freaked me out."

"What was it?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen him since." She took his hand. "Will you walk me out?" They reached the door and he opened it for her, still looking a bit upset. She pulled him out into the hallway and kissed him passionately. "Do you still like me?" She asked as she pulled away.

"Well, I haven't gone through this much shit for any other chick."

Smiling she began to walk backward. "I'll see you later, I have to go drop out of the tournament."

He shrugged, as she turned away he called after her. "Do you want some advice?"

She stopped and turned. "Sure."

"Don't wear those pajamas anymore, they make your ass look big." With a malicious smile on his face he went into his room and closed the door.


	20. To Tell the Truth

Chapter 19

(To Tell the Truth)

"_I wanted to be anyone else_

_only to fin that there was no one there but me..."_

Three Doors Down (_The Real Life)_

"...I really need to speak to him, um, please." Amaya spoke to Heihachi's secretary on the telephone of her hotel room.

She responded curtly. _"He is at the tournament and therefore unavailable."_

"This is Amaya Takahashi, this is an emergency, it's about the tournament."

The secretary sighed. _"I suppose I could give him a message."_

Amaya could feel her temper quickly rising. "Look, a message will do no good! I am scheduled to fight in _on_e hour, he needs to know that I will not be making an appearance. I am not going to fight."

There was a brief silence. _"...Hold please."_

The sound of bad elevator music suddenly poured into her ear making her grimace. A few seconds later the music stopped and she heard Heihachi's voice. _"My secretary has given me very disturbing news."_

"Um...Yes." Amaya sat up straight as if she were facing Heihachi. "I will not be fighting."

"_This is not something that I wish to discuss over the phone. I am on my way to the hotel, I will see you in my office in five minutes."_

"But I–" He had hung up.

Five minutes later she found herself knocking on the office door. "Come in."

She opened the door and stepped inside, Heihachi was sitting at his desk his eyes fixed on her. When she turned to close the door she was startled to see the bodyguards from the previous night standing at either side.

"I am afraid I cannot allow this to happen." Heihachi said calmly.

"Why?"

He smirked. "I have my reasons. They are not your concern."

Amaya shook her head. "Look, I tried to be polite by letting you know this, _in person_ when I could have simply decided not to show up." She began to turn toward the door. "Since there is no contract binding me and you don't seem to listen, I am simply going to _not_ show up."

"You are quite fond of that Korean boy..." Heihachi's statement made her stop as her hand was about to touch the doorknob. "...Or am I mistaken?"

She turned around and spoke in what she hoped was a calm voice. "That is not your concern." She did not like where the conversation was going.

"Yes," Heihachi ignored her. "It is quite obvious."

Amaya took a step forward. "Where are you going with this?"

"I did not want to resort to this, I did not want to involve him or anyone else."

She felt her heartbeat accelerate. "What do you mean?"

"I am by no means an expert," Heihachi laughed softly. "...As you can probably tell...but I have heard that when someone cares about a person he or _she_ does not want any harm to come to her or _him_."

Her mouth went dry. "...What?"

"I think you heard me quite well."

She shook her head. "I don't believe you."

"My dear..." He smiled. "I threw my son into a volcano, shot my grandson and disowned my other son. Do you honestly believe that I will hesitate to kill someone I don't even know?"

The dread she felt was suddenly replaced by anger. "You would..." She couldn't bring herself to say the work. "You would..._hurt_ him just to get me to fight?"

He nodded."I'm afraid so."

"You son of a–" She advanced toward him but stopped when she felt the cold metal of a gun pressed against her right temple. She had completely forgotten about the bodyguards.

"Do not be rash." Heihachi advised. "It leads to nothing but bad decisions...Wouldn't you say?"

"What–" The bodyguard pushed her head slightly with the muzzle. "What do you want from me?" Amaya asked as she kept perfectly still.

Heihachi motioned the man to put the gun away, he quickly obeyed. "I want you to win the fight."

She rubbed her temple. "You want me to _win_?"

"Yes...if you want your dear boy to live that is."

Amaya felt her heart sink. "...But...You can't...There is _no_ guarantee that I will win." She felt sick.

Heihachi shrugged. "Then I suppose there is no guarantee that he will live." He stood up. "Your fight will begin in thirty minutes, I suggest that you get going and I suggest that you _do _win."

She slowly began to walk toward the door, knowing that for the first time in her life she _truly_ was in over her head, and what was worse, she was taking someone else down with her.

Thirty minutes later Amaya stood near the center of the arena. She was absently adjusting her black sparing gloves for what must have been the fifth time in the last thirty seconds. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled then looked down at her tennis shoes to make sure the laces were still tied, though she had checked them only seconds before. She stole a quick glance at her opponent, he was very tall and very muscular. She normally would not be fazed by such an opponent, however, she had seen him fight the day before and knew that he was extremely skilled. She found his jaguar mask severely unnerving as she was not able to read his facial expressions and this put her at a disadvantage.

"Fighters ready?" They nodded simultaneously. "Fight!"

King came at her with a shoulder tackle before she had time to react, he hit her hard causing her to land painfully on her back. As he attempted to execute a kick to her side she was able to trip him, he fell to his knees giving her enough time to stand up and give him a powerful kick to the face. King fell back but was quickly able to get back on his feet. Amaya waited for him to make the next move, this soon proved to be a mistake. He charged at her then jumped, the next thing she saw was two giant, boot-covered feet going straight at her. She was able to take one small step backward, though the force of the blow knocked her to the ground forcing her to land on her side it did not do more damage than that. What happened next however, would have cost anybody the fight.

She felt his foot forcing her body to face down, she then felt his tremendous weight on her back. Being in that helpless position all she could do was try to wriggle out from under him. The next thing she felt was her right knee being painfully twisted and she knew she had lost. Tears begin to stream down her face, an innocent person was going to die because of her..._How will the kill him_? She wondered, _when?_ At that moment she felt ashamed of herself, how could she possibly think about giving up when someone's life depended on her? Hwoarang was not going to die. She couldn't let that happen, not while she was still alive. She didn't know how she had managed to get out from under King, she quickly stood up this made her realize that it was terribly painful to stand on her right leg.

_I can't let this happen._ _I have to win, I need to win. _"God, please help me." She felt strange saying something like that, it had been so many years since she had thought about him.

Seeing King rushing at her brought her back to reality, a painful reality in which she was the underdog, an underdog who could barely stand on her right leg. She was able to block his punch, but she knew that having him that close gave her chance for little else. Doing her best to ignore the pain she turned and ran, with no warning she stopped, turned and charged at King executing a floating side kick that landed beautifully on his chest. He fell unceremoniously to the ground and was able to get up with some effort. Amaya was sure her blow had at least cracked a couple of his ribs. She charged again. Apparently thinking that she would do the same thing again and it being too late to do anything else, King stood in a horse stance with his forearms making an X, protecting his already battered chest.

She had no idea how she had known that he would do what he did, but it didn't matter. She slid between his feet and quickly stood up behind him. Her arms encircling him, she began to _lift_ him using her knee as support, her pain forgotten. She moved her arms back until she was holding him with her hands, then arms shaking, she lifted him high above her head and suddenly let go quickly stepping out of the way. King fell but did not attempt to get up, he merely clutched his chest.

Amaya stared at him wide eyed, her shaking hands slowly covered her mouth. "...How did I do that?" She said under her breath.

The pain in her knee came back suddenly making her put her weight on her left leg. It was then that she became aware of the silence that enveloped the arena, all eyes were on her, even the announcer was speechless, after a few moments he swallowed and managed to say, "...Amaya Takahashi...um...wins." The spectators remained silent. Two paramedics advanced toward King while eyeing Amaya cautiously. She turned around and painfully limped toward the locker room area.

She entered the women's locker room and sat down on a small wooden bench. Her mouth felt dry, her arms heavy and she could hear the loud beating of her heart, she closed her eyes and slowly took in a deep breath. As she exhaled she opened her eyes and leaned back, looking down at her hands she attempted to take off her gloves, but her hands were shaking so violently that she was unable to do it. She gasped and shuddered as she heard the door open, she quickly stood up when she saw Hwoarang come in.

"Are you okay?" She was surprised to hear how shaky her voice sounded.

"Am _I_ okay?" Hwoarang shook his head. "What the hell kind of a question is that? Am I okay?" Amaya limped up to him and wrapped her arms around him, he was safe, she had won the fight and Hwoarang was safe. She felt tears run down her face and quickly tried to wipe them away, but it was too late, he had already seen. "What is it?" There was genuine concern in his voice. "Why are you crying?"

She forced herself to smile. "Because I won." She said as she wiped away the rest of the tears. "And you shouldn't be here, this is the women's locker room."

"What happened out there?" He looked intently at her. "You freaked everybody out, you freaked _me_ out!"

Amaya suddenly felt defensive. "Everyone is surprised because a beat a someone bigger than me?"

"No." Hwoarang took a step back. "I'm not talking about _beating_ someone bigger than you. I'm talking about _lifting_." He motioned with his arms. "You're what, five four? _And _a girl? No offence, but you are."

Amaya folded her arms under her chest. "What is that supposed to mean?"

He sighed. "That means that it's impossible for any woman your size to do what you did."

"Obviously it's not." How could she explain it if she didn't even know? She once again tried to take off her gloves and was able to do so. "I'm sure it was just adrenaline."

"...I guess...but still..." He looked at her and shook his head. "Never mind, there's no way I can understand this." He thought for a moment. "Why did you tell me you were going to drop out of the tournament?"

She was quiet as she thought about her answer, she couldn't tell him the truth, that would only make things worse. "...I _was_ going to drop out..."

"Then why didn't you?"

She smile weakly and shook her head. "...I can't."

Hwoarang walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Why?"

Amaya looked down at her tennis shoes. "...It is a very personal reason...I can't tell you."

He sighed and to her surprise nodded his head. "Okay." He said quietly.

"Thank you."

"Those reporters aren't allowed in here, but once you get out there, they'll want some answers."

"I don't want to talk to them, all I want is to be in my room and get some ice for my knee."

"Then I suggest we take the alternate route." Hwoarang pointed to the window.

"I can't jump out the window!"

He rolled his eyes. "If you can lift King you can jump out of a window."

"But I'm injured."

"No complaining princess, you're the one who decided to stay in the tournament."

She limped toward the window. "Don't call me princess."

He opened it. "Fine sweetheart, shut up and let's go."

"You are never going to change."

Hwoarang smiled. "You know you wouldn't like me any other way."

After the fight Jin followed the exiting crowd out of the arena. Not wanting to be noticed he pulled his hood over his head and began to slowly make his way out. He replayed the fight in his head again and again and was still not able to comprehend how Amaya had won. He had felt something at that moment, something that had scared him...He stopped, a very strange thought had suddenly struck him...Had it been him, or Devil who had been scared? He stepped to the side to avoid a person standing in front of him and was surprised when she blocked his way.

"Jin, we need to talk." It was Xiaoyu. He felp panic, he wanted nothing more than to run away, to be far from her, he wanted to be anywhere as long as it meant that he didn't have to face her. "I'm serious." She said as she clutched his sleeve.

_Tell her._ Devil's voice dared him. _Tell her everything and lose her forever._

Jin hung his head and spoke softly. "...Please leave me alone..."

"I can't leave you alone..." Xiaoyu said taking the words to be meant for her. "...I won't."

He suddenly felt so tired, he felt that he could not lie anymore, that he could not hide anymore. "...I don't know what to do..." He looked at her with weary eyes. "...I..."

_She cannot help you. _Devil's voice filled his head once again.

He shut his eyes tightly. "...I just want it to stop."

Xiaoyu took his hand. "You want what to stop?"

Jin looked at her. "I can't tell you."

"Jin, you _have_ to tell me. After what happened you owe me an explanation."

He knew she was right, after what had happened she deserved to know.

_If you tell her, she will abandon you._

Was Devil right?

_Of course I am._

"Jin...please." She looked as if she were about to cry.

Could he tell her? Could he risk losing the only friend that he had?

_What good will it do to tell her? To put this burden upon her?_

If only Devil would let him think.

_Go ahead, tell her. The more miserable you are the happier I am._

"I'll tell you." Jin heard himself speaking the words but could not believe that he had done so.

_Fool._

"When?" Xiaoyu asked.

Jin looked around. "Not here or now, there are too many people and I need to get ready for my fight."

"When?" She asked again.

"Meet me at the park behind the Mishima Hotel at seven."

Xiaoyu nodded. "Okay." She turned to leave but then stopped and looked back at him. "Jin...You won't regret telling me." She smiled weakly and then walked away.

Jin closed his eyes as he heard Devil's words. _Yes, you will._


End file.
